Title: Phenotypic characterization of Brucella melitensis isolated from livestock in Abu Dhabi Emirate
Abstract:Brucellosis is an infectious zoonotic disease associated with chronic debilitating infections in humans, loss of calves, lambs or kids and infertility in animals. A high prevalence of the disease in l...Brucellosis is an infectious zoonotic disease associated with chronic debilitating infections in humans, loss of calves, lambs or kids and infertility in animals. A high prevalence of the disease in livestock is reported in Abu Dhabi Emirate. However, the isolation of Brucella species from livestock in this region has never been reported. Therefore, this study aimed to isolate and identify Brucella species involved in animal infections to the biovar level. Out of 105 samples including blood, milk and supramammary lymph nodes collected from camel, cattle, sheep and goats during the period of 2009-2010 in Abu Dhabi Emirate, a total of 30 isolates from milk samples were identified as Brucella melitensis. Three isolates were biotyped as B. melitensis biovar 1 and twenty seven isolates as B. melitensis biovar 3. Susceptibility testing by the disk diffusion method on Muller Hinton agar showed variable sensitivity of all strains to the 8 antibiotics tested. The study reports the first successful isolation and characterization of B. melitensis from livestock in the United Arab Emirate. Key words: Brucella melitensis, isolation, biotyping, epidemiology, United Arab Emirate.Read More