Microbiology Research Journal International

Aims: To detect and determine the prevalence of Brucella antibodies in goats and farmers’ awareness and practices towards Brucella infection in Kaduna State, Nigeria.

Experimental Design: A cross sectional study was used in this research.

Place and Duration of Study: Giwa area in Kaduna State, Nigeria. The study was conducted from July, 2014 to June, 2015.

Methodology: Two hundred and eighty serum and 113 milk samples (from lactating Does) were collected from goats in Giwa area of Kaduna State. Of the six districts in the area, 52 samples were collected from 10 households in Kakangi, 45 from 9 households in Giwa, 43 from 8 households in Tsibiri, 43 from 8 households in Gangara, 56 from 10 households in Yakawada, 41 from 9 households in Danmahawayi. Open and close ended questionnaires were administered to the farmers in form of interview using local dialect, to obtain information on their goats, such as age, sex, management practices, pregnancy, abortion history, and other reproductive problems such as retention of placenta in goats. Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT), Competitive Enzyme Linked-Immunosorbent Assay (cELISA) and Milk Ring Test (MRT) were used to detect Brucella antibodies. Open and close ended questions were administered to the farmers in form of interview to obtain information on their goats and to determine their knowledge and practices with respect to Brucella infection. Chi-square (χ²), Fisher’s exact tests and Odds ratio were used to test for association between categorical variables. P-value less than 0.05 (P<0.05) was considered statistically significant.

Results: A prevalence of 8.2%, 2.5% and 38.1% were obtained using RBPT, cELISA and MRT respectively. There was a significant association (P<0.037) between the districts and prevalence of Brucella antibodies in milk. The prevalence of Brucella antibodies was higher (10.9%) in goats from households where the farmers had no knowledge of the disease than those who had knowledge of the disease (5.9%). Those flocks with history of abortion had a lower prevalence (6.3%) as compared to those without abortion (12.5%). Detection of Brucella antibodies were higher (13.8%) in flocks that recorded abortion during the late gestation period than the early (5.0%) and mid (12.3%) gestation periods. Thirty-nine percent of these farmers used polythene bags on their hands as protective covering when handling aborted fetuses and other vaginal discharges, while 56.1% discard aborted materials freely into the environment. There was no statistical association between the prevalence of Brucella antibodies and farmers’ knowledge of the disease, abortion history and gestation period at the time of abortion.

Conclusion: This study has demonstrated that goats in Kaduna State harbour antibodies to Brucella and the farmers’ awareness and practices towards Brucella infection is insufficient. There is a need to further enlighten the farmers on the zoonotic implication of brucellosis, Brucella infection prevention and control.