Overview on Brucellosis in Camels

A total of 270 dromedary dairy camels above five years old with a history of reproductive disorders, including abortion, repeated breeding, reduced milk production, and retained fetal membranes belonging to different localities at El-Sharqia Governorate, including Abu Kabir, Belbis, DeyarbNegm, EL Husseiniya, and Minya al-Qamh were employed in this study. Different risk factors associated with camel brucellosis were investigated in these camel's populations, these include the rearing of camels with different ruminant’s species, addition of new animals, as well as lack of sanitary measures. The modified Rose Bengal Test and Complement Fixation Test revealed a prevalence of 40 (14.8%) and 32 (11.9%) respectively. The three districts with the highest prevalence of camel brucellosis were Belbeis (14.12%), EL Husseiniya (12.19%), and Minya al-Qamh (10.7%). Three (9.4%) brucella species were isolated out of 32 milk samples from serologically positive she-camels. Two isolates were identified as B. melitensis biovar 3 and one isolate was identified as B. abortus biovar1. Bru-cella strain DNA extracts from milk samples showed a specific amplicon of 731 bp specific for B. melitensis (18) and an amplicon of 498 bp specific for B. abortus (4), but no amplicon of 285 bp specific for B. suis could be detected after being subjected to PCR using the IS711 primer in this investigation. We concluded that, in this study, Brucella meliteneis biovar 3 is a common field strain in camels. Oxidative stress biomarkers, malonaldehyde (MDA) were increased significantly ( P ≤ 0.05) in infected camel, whereas nitric oxide (NO) was moderate increase. Antioxidant enzymes like Gluta-thione Peroxidase enzyme (GPx) was significantly increase whereas catalase (CAT) was significantly reduced in infected camel. This study has confirmed our understanding of risk factors associated with camel brucellosis. The rearing of camels with different ruminant’s species, the addition of new animals, and the lack of sanitary measures were the primary risk factors associated with the spread of brucellosis among dairy camels .