Evaluation of the General Organization of Veterinary Services control program of animal brucellosis in Egypt: An outbreak investigation of brucellosis in buffalo

Brucellosis is a major constraint to livestock production in Egypt as well as many developing countries worldwide. Bovine brucellosis is an economically important disease with reproductive failure as a principal manifestation resulting in abortion, premature birth and decreased milk production in females, and orchitis and epididymitis in males. In spite of the efforts of Egyptian veterinary services to overcome brucellosis, the disease is still prevalent in both animals and humans and represents one of the most important public health hazards in Egypt. The aim of the present work was to investigate the efficacy of the control program implemented by the General Organization of Veterinary Services in infected buffalo farm on serological, molecular, cultural, and histopathological basis. biovar 3 was recovered from 6 buffalo-cows. Blood samples were collected from a total of 750 non-vaccinated lactating buffalo-cows. These animals were proved positive for by the Egyptian brucellosis national program. Sera were tested using buffered acidified plate antigen test and rose Bengal test as screening tests and complement fixation test as a confirmatory test. Positive animals were separated for slaughtering under the supervision of the Egyptian veterinary authorities. Remaining animals were tested every 3 weeks with slaughtering of positive cases and this continued until the remaining animals revealed three successive negative serological tests. Different lymph nodes (prescapular, prefemoral, mediastinal, retropharyngeal, and supramammary) were collected from 11 seropositive buffalo-cows slaughtered after being confirmed serologically as infected cases. Samples were collected and processed for bacterial isolation and nucleic acid detection using polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Parts of these specimens were fixed in 10% neutral buffered formalin for 48 h then processed by paraffin embedding technique. "Test and slaughter" policy was applied on infected dairy buffalo farm. The program continued for 6 months with slaughtering of positive cases until the herd was proved free. biovar 3 could be recovered from six buffalo-cows. Universal PCR confirmed on genus level and Bruce-ladder multiplex, PCR confirmed the presence of on the species level. Histopathological examination of -infected lymph nodes revealed massive rarified and depleted lymphoid areas of both sub-capsular and deep cortical lymphoid follicles, macrophage cells granulomatous reaction, as well as fat, infilt