BRUCELLOSIS
Eradication campaigns have been introduced widely to control this disease, and they have been successful in many countries. Some, like Denmark, Great Britain,Netherlands and Romania are now free from the disease. In certain other countries less than 0.5% of cattle and 3% of herds may still be infected. Finally, regulations in Europe now usually specify that bulls admitted to artificial insemination (AI) centres must be negative to the agglutination test (AT) and/or the
complement fixation (CF) test on blood serum. The bulls have to come from brucellosis-free herds.
The success of measures for the prophylaxis of brucellosis means that this is no longer an important disease of the genital system. Diagnosis has been standardised and is, in general, highly efficient. However, it should be noted that in Great Britain (Bell, 1984) and France (Parez, 1981) there have been problems of non-specific reactions to the serum agglutination test among bulls at AI centres, with AT titres
between 30 and 80 IU and a negative CF test. Such reactions have appeared sporadically among bulls kept in isolation at AI centres for some time (1-3 years or
more), and the reactions disappear after 1-8 months. This phenomenon does not seem to occur in countries which have been free from brucellosis for many generations
of cattle (Denmark, Sweden). It would be necessary to examine the health records for the dam of such a bull to discover if the dam had been contaminated or vaccinated at a young age. Bell (1984) believed that the cause should be sought in
an anomaly of the immune system, particularly of IgM.
There has been a report of positive serological reactions following contamination of foot and mouth disease vaccine with strain 19 vaccine against brucellosis (Parez, 1982).
Eradication campaigns have been introduced widely to control this disease, and they have been successful in many countries. Some, like Denmark, Great Britain,Netherlands and Romania are now free from the disease. In certain other countries less than 0.5% of cattle and 3% of herds may still be infected. Finally, regulations in Europe now usually specify that bulls admitted to artificial insemination (AI) centres must be negative to the agglutination test (AT) and/or the
complement fixation (CF) test on blood serum. The bulls have to come from brucellosis-free herds.
The success of measures for the prophylaxis of brucellosis means that this is no longer an important disease of the genital system. Diagnosis has been standardised and is, in general, highly efficient. However, it should be noted that in Great Britain (Bell, 1984) and France (Parez, 1981) there have been problems of non-specific reactions to the serum agglutination test among bulls at AI centres, with AT titres
between 30 and 80 IU and a negative CF test. Such reactions have appeared sporadically among bulls kept in isolation at AI centres for some time (1-3 years or
more), and the reactions disappear after 1-8 months. This phenomenon does not seem to occur in countries which have been free from brucellosis for many generations
of cattle (Denmark, Sweden). It would be necessary to examine the health records for the dam of such a bull to discover if the dam had been contaminated or vaccinated at a young age. Bell (1984) believed that the cause should be sought in
an anomaly of the immune system, particularly of IgM.
There has been a report of positive serological reactions following contamination of foot and mouth disease vaccine with strain 19 vaccine against brucellosis (Parez, 1982).
