The Prospect of Molecular Epidemiology of Brucella Species in Iran

Human brucellosis and its prevalence are directly correlated with the presence of animal infections in various regions. The infections associated with Brucella species have been reported in numerous animals. The incidence of these infections has recently increased in the endemic regions in Iran, including Zagros areas and the northeast of the country. Therefore, there have been difficulties in the diagnosis of the infectious cases since there is the possibility of encountering resistant strains. Furthermore, the spread of immerging strains is among the challenges that rapidly affect animals, even vaccinated livestock. Antibiotic-resistant strains are important in livestock since drug resistance may rapidly spread to humans. Therefore, continuous investigation is required in the case of drug resistance or immerging strains. Conventional typing procedures are no longer used due to several difficulties. Identifying the type of Brucella could provide adequate data on epidemiological surveillance, investigation of the infection outbreaks, tracking the diseases, identifying the immerging types, reviewing the success rate of eradicating the infections, and examining the outbreaks in the endemic areas. The reports regarding the application of molecular typing methods are still under development. Extensive research has been focused on the typing of brucellosis, proposing controversial results and aiming to improve the applied procedures. This review aimed to assess the ability of the introduced molecular methods and their status for identification and typing procedures. In addition, the frequency and distribution of Brucella species and subspecies have been investigated.