Abstract

Brucellosis is a worldwide zoonosis that has major public health concern in Egypt. The present work was conducted to investigate the seroprevalence of brucellosis in sheep and human in four localities in North Western region of Egypt, on basis of the Rose Bengal plate test (RBPT) and further confirmation by complement fixation test (CFT). A total of 2471 sheep serum samples and 371 human samples were collected. The prevalence of brucellosis in sheep and human by using RBPT were 11% (272/2471) and 24.3% (90/371), respectively while by CFT were 10.56% (261/2471) and 22.91% (85/371). There was significant relationship between age and in infection rate in sheep (P< 0.01), with higher percentage of infection was indicated in age group over than 24 months by 14.19% (264/1860) followed by age group less than 24 month and over 12 months by 2.39% (8/335). On studying the relation between locality and infection rate there was no significance in human samples while in sheep it was significant (P< 0.01) with higher percentage of infection found in Siwa region by 20.30% (94/463) in sheep and in human by 27.6% (27/98). Concerning season there is highly significant relationship between season and percent of infection with Brucella, the high percent of infection found in human and sheep by 43.1% (62/144) and 16.51% (123/745) respectively and lower percent found in spring months by 8% in sheep. From our result, it is concluded that RBPT and CFT used as screening tests for detection the prevalence of species in serum samples, Brucella infection is found with high percent in north, west region of Egypt, which need further examination and studying another risk factor associated with infection and isolation of Brucella in this area.