Assessing impacts and costs of brucellosis control programme in an endemic area of the Nile Delta, Egypt

Data for the prevalence of brucellosis in ruminants and humans were scarce in Egypt. Recent studies suggested that, the disease was endemic in all ruminant species, with a high prevalence. Since 1981, the national brucellosis control programme involved testing all female ruminants older than six months and slaughtering serological positives, with the voluntary vaccination of calves and kids. The aim of present study was to assess the impacts and costs of the current control programme on the temporal pattern of brucellosis among ruminants and humans using data from the active surveillance programme between the years 1990 and 2012. Frequency tables were used to calculate the proportions of animals tested and proportions of seropositive for Brucella spp. To compare between seropositive proportions in different years, univariate binary logistic regression model, with seropositive as the response variable and year 1990 as a reference was used. The annual proportion of positive animals ranged from 0.66% to 4.01% in the study period. There was a significant decrease of the positive proportion of ruminants between 1990 and 2003 (P< 0.001), followed by an increase from 2004 to 2010 then a significant decrease in 2011 and 2012 (P< 0.001). The incidence of brucellosis in humans was also decreasing. These results indicated that brucellosis is endemic in ruminants and humans in the study area. Further studies are required for determining the socio-economic impacts of brucellosis and its control measures.