Current Status and Future Prospect of Brucella Blood Culture in Iran: A Review of the Recent Findings

The prevalence of brucellosis has increased in recent years in some regions in Iran, particularly in the western, northeastern, and some central areas. Undoubtedly, the main causes of brucellosis are the lack of vaccination coverage in livestock and distribution of dairy products. In addition, attention must be paid to the diagnostic difficulties associated with slow growth specificity and use of inefficient methods, which lead to the delayed diagnosis of the disease. All the available diagnostic procedures are currently used for the diagnosis of brucellosis, including isolation on culture media, serological procedures, and molecular techniques. Among these methods, isolation on culture media has shown the minimum efficiency, especially in blood specimens, which are the most commonly requested specimens in disease diagnosis. The influential factors could be the use of unapproved commercial kits, applying outdated diagnostic procedures, and using unqualified specimens in hospitalized patients. The present study aimed to enhance the current status of the isolation method, especially in the endemic areas for brucellosis. Several parameters were assessed in this regard, including the role of laboratory conditions, sampling quality, type of culture media, and various isolation methods, in order to review the studies aiming to increase the efficiency of this method.