Current Status of Brucellosis in Dairy Cows of Chiang Rai Province, Thailand

Abstract

Current status of brucellosis in dairy cows have an impact on livestock development in Chiang Rai due to transmission and creating infertile cows. Livestock development particularly in dairy cows have been hampered by low production including milk and meat production due to many pathogens including Brucella abortus, a gram negative bacteria, is the causative agent of brucellosis recognized as a major cause of bovine abortion around the world and known to have a detrimental effect on bovine pregnancy outcome and on milk production. Currently, there is no effective method for control of brucellosis. The objective of this study was to investigate the seroprevalence of brucellosis in dairy cows in Chiang Rai, Thailand. From January to June in 2007, the sera of 392 cows in 29 small holder farms from Chiang Rai were collected. Antibodies to B. abortus were determined by c-ELISA (SVANOVIR, Sweden) and 13 (3.3 %) samples were revealed seropositive. Cows between age of 1 and 5 years had the highest seroprevalence (3.8%) compared to cows with more than 5 years (2.8%). Phan district was the highest endemic area for B. abortus infections in dairy cows (60%). A total of dairy farm infections was 24.1% (7/29). The prevalence of individual B. abortus infections on cows was not high but the number of positive farms were rising. This result indicated the factor associated with dairy cow’s infertility in dairy farms. This will be beneficial for control strategy of brucellosis such food safety program of food animals in Chiang Rai.