Frequency of Occurance of Brucellosis in Goats in Ludhiana District of Punjab State of India

We investigated the frequency of Brucellosis in goats in Ludhiana district of Punjab state of India because it is of great public health concern yet there is hardly any report in this regard from this region recently. A total of 191 serum samples of goats from slaughter houses were analyzed with RBPT, STAT, MAT and ELISA. Out of these, 31 goats were positive for Brucellosis by one or more of these tests. Among positives, 14 were detected by RBPT, 17 by STAT, 21 by MAT, and 21 by ELISA; 10 samples were positive and 160 negative by all methods. ELISA and MAT detected highest number of samples followed by STAT and RBPT. Frequency of Brucellosis in goats in Ludhiana was found to be 5.23% by RBPT and ELISA. This is alarming considering the zoonotic potential of the disease, handling of raw milk and goat mutton and consumption of goat cheese in this region. The mean titers of anti-Brucella antibodies in goats were 36.66±16.32 by STAT and 49.16±29.47 by MAT, with non-significant difference by ‘t’ test. Thus, Brucellosis is prevalent in a small proportion of goat population in Ludhiana and needs regular monitoring to enable effective measures for its control.