Prevalence of brucellosis in goats at Kitgum town council, Kitgum district.

Abstract

Brucellosis is a worldwide zoonotic pathogen responsible for a number of economic losses as well as a considerable human morbidity in the endemic areas with a national prevalence of 10% to 15% if, pastoral areas in Uganda and no information was available on the disease prevalence in Kitgum town council. A research study was conducted in Kitgum town council in Kitgum district to determine the prevalence of brucellosis according to sex, age groups and parishes. A total of 142 goats in the study area were selected by stratified random sampling in the parishes of Pandwong, Guu and Pongdwongo to be bled and tested for brucella antibodies using RBPT. The results were analyzed using cross tabs and descriptive statistics in SPSS version 16. The test results showed ail overall prevalence of 53.5%. (n=76). The prevalence in female (58;7%, n=64) was higher than in male (36.4%; n=12). The incidence of brucellosis in the study showed that the prevalence increases with level of maturity with 24% (n=13), 56.8% (n=25) and 80.9% (n=3.8) in goats of 0-1 year, 2-3years and >3 years respectively. Brucella infections occur in animal of all age groups but persist commonly in sexually mature animals. The prevalence of brucellosis in the parishes were, 58.9% (n=43)44.7% (n=21),54.5% (n=12) in Pandwong, Pongdwongo, and Guu respectively. There was no significant difference (P<505) in the prevalence of brucellosis in male goats in age group of 0-1 year and 2-3 years. It was concluded that the prevalence of brucellosis was high in female goats than in male ones; the disease had a high prevalent in older stock than younger ones and the prevalence in all the parishes are higher than the national prevalence. It was recommended that an urgent mass sensitization should be done to create awareness about the disease similar research with indirect or competitive ELISA as diagnostic test should be conducted and I further research studies should be done to ascertain the prevalence of the disease in other animal species in the district.