A serosurvey of Bovine Brucellosis in three cattle-rearing regions of Somaliland (Northern Somalia)

A random survey to study the seroprevalence of bovine brucellosis has been carried out between July 2008 and December 2008 in three main districts of Somaliland (Awdal, Waqoyi Galbed and Togdheer) of northern Somalia. A total of 1668 bovine blood sera were randomly collected from 46 herd/flock of accessible unvaccinated male and female cattle to be analyzed. Rose Bengal Plate Test (RBPT) and indirect ELISA (I-ELISA) were used to screen all sera samples. The prevalence of brucellosis in the tested bovine sera were 5.5% (n=91), and 4.4% (n=74) by RBPT, and by I-ELISA respectively. There was a little difference regarding to sex of the prevalence between males and females in the overall studied districts as it was 5.0% and 3.8% in males by RBPT and I-ELISA respectively, while it was 5.8% and 5.0% in females respectively. There were little differences in prevalences of brucellosis among the studied districts which was highest in Awdal (6.5%) whereas in Waqoyi Galbeed (5.1%) and in Togdheer (5.5%) by RBPT, while it was in (5.1%), followed by Waqoyi Galbeed (4.1%), and Togdheer (4.1%) regions by (I-ELISA). There was no significant  difference in the seroprevalence according to the age.