Seroprevalence of Bovine Brucellosis and its Risk Factors in Cattle in and around Gondar Town, North West Gondar, Ethiopia

Background: In Ethiopia sero-prevalence of bovine Brucellosis have been reported in different agro-ecology of the country intensively but very limited reports on disease dynamics in north Gondar zone compared to other locations of the country. This study was to determine the sero-prevalence of bovine Brucellosis and assess the potential risk factors in and around Gondar, south-western Ethiopia. Methods: The total herds included in this study were 47, selected purposively based on the willingness of the owners. But an individual animal selection was using simple random sampling method except for those cows with history of abortion or active case of abortion which included purposively. All serum samples were initially screened by Rose-Bengal Plate Test and further tested by Complement Fixation Test (CFT) for confirmation. Results: Overall sero-prevalences recorded were 4.9% and herds’ level prevalence was 34%. Among the potential risk factors considered in the present study, breed of cattle, parity, production system, and breeding system had statistically significant association (p<0.05) with sero-positivity of bovine Brucellosis. Intensification of production system, introduction of exotic or cross-breeds and AI usage had found to have high risk of exposure for seropositivity of bovine Brucellosis (ORs=7.11, 12.18, 4.63, P=0.029, 0.0023, 0.035) respectively. Using questionnaire survey, a prevalence of abortion were 22.4% and 4.9% after 5th month of pregnancy and before 5th month of pregnancy respectively. And abortion after 5th month of pregnancy was significantly associated with sero-positivity bovine Brucellosis (p<0.05). Conclusion: In conclusion, there was an increase of sero-prevalence of bovine Brucellosis and the potential risk factors at both animal and herd level in the study area when compared with many reports before at the same study site as well as different regions of the country; therefore, further studies on isolation and strain characterization and appropriate control measures should be considered.