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Brucellosis Risk in Urban and Agro-pastoral Areas in Tanzania

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Abstract

Epidemiology of human and animal brucellosis may depend on ecological conditions. A cross-sectional study was conducted to compare prevalence and risk factors of bovine brucellosis, and risky behaviours for the human infection between urban and agro-pastoral areas in Morogoro region, Tanzania. Cattle blood sampling and interviews using a structured questionnaire were conducted with farmers. Rose-Bengal test was conducted for the cattle sera, and positive samples were confirmed with competitive ELISA. Farm-level sero-prevalences were 0.9% (1/106, 95% CI 0.0–5.9%) and 52.9% (9/17, 95% CI 28.5–76.1%) in urban and agro-pastoral areas, respectively. The animal-level-adjusted prevalences were 0.2% (1/667, 95% CI 0.0–1.1%) and 7.0% (28/673, 95% CI 5.7–8.4%) in those areas. The final farm-level model including both areas found two risk factors: history of abortion in the herd (P < 0.01) and cattle grazing (P = 0.07). The animal-level risk factors in agro-pastoral areas were age (P = 0.04) and history of abortion (P = 0.03). No agro-pastoral farmer knew about Brucella vaccine. Agro-pastoralists generally had poorer knowledge on brucellosis and practiced significantly more risky behaviours for human brucellosis such as drinking raw milk (17.6%, P < 0.01) and blood (35.3%, P < 0.01), and helping cattle birth (100%, P = 0.04) than urban farmers (0, 0 and 79.2%, respectively). Intervention programs through education including both human and animal health particularly targeting agro-pastoralists would be needed.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology of Japan under a research project “Development of rapid diagnostic kits for infectious pathogens in industry animals and establishment of effective control methods through global analysis of transmission routes (Grant Number S1391001)”, of “2013 support grant for establishment of strategic research platform for private universities”. SA thanks the Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteer (JOCV) program of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for funding preparatory phase of the project. The authors would like to thank all the farmers who participated in the survey. We also thank Morogoro municipal and Mvomero district officials and veterinary and livestock field officers for their cooperation during the implementation of this study.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Veterinary Epidemiology Unit, School of Veterinary Medicine, Rakuno Gakuen University, 582 Bunkyodai Midorimachi, Ebetsu, Hokkaido, 069-8501, Japan

    Shingo Asakura & Kohei Makita

  2. Department of Veterinary Medicine and Public Health, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P.O. Box 3021, Morogoro, Tanzania

    George Makingi & Rudovick Kazwala

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  1. Shingo Asakura
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  2. George Makingi
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  3. Rudovick Kazwala
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  4. Kohei Makita
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Correspondence to Kohei Makita.

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Ethical statements

This study was approved by the Ethical Committee of the Graduate School of Dairy Science, Rakuno Gakuen University (Approval Number 16-3). Permission to conduct the study in Morogoro municipality and Mvomero district was sought and granted by municipal and district executive officers (reference numbers E.10/MMC-138/185 and MVDC/C.80/4 VOLII/126, respectively). Verbal informed consent was obtained from each participant after livestock field officers explained the aim of the study.

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Asakura, S., Makingi, G., Kazwala, R. et al. Brucellosis Risk in Urban and Agro-pastoral Areas in Tanzania. EcoHealth 15, 41–51 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-017-1308-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10393-017-1308-z

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