Brucella canis infection in dogs attended in veterinary clinics from patos, ParabaIBA state, Brazil.

To determine the frequency of anti-Brucella canis antibodies in dogs attended in veterinary clinics from Patos, Paraíba State, Brazil, as well as to identify risk factors and to isolate and identify the agent, 193 dogs were used. Agar gel immunodiffusion test (AGID) was used to detect B. canis antibodies in sera. Isolation of B. canis was carried out in blood and bone marrow from seropositive animals. Six animals tested seropositive in AGID, resulting in a frequency of 3.11%. B. canis was isolated from bone marrow of one seropositive animal, with confirmation by PCR. Lack of cleaning of the dog's environment was identified as risk factor (odds ratio = 7.91). This is the first report of isolation of B. canis in dogs from the Northeast region of Brazil.

Detection of Brucella ovis in ovine from Paraíba State, in the Northeast region of Brazil.

To determine the presence of Brucella ovis in ovine from Paraíba State, in the Northeast region of Brazil, 80 animals slaughtered in the public slaughterhouse of Patos city were used. Before slaughter, blood samples were collected by jugular venopuncture from each animal, and after slaughter, testicles, epidydimus and uterus were aseptically collected. For the serological diagnosis of B. ovis and B. abortus infections, the agar gel immunodiffusion (AGID) and Rose Bengal (RBT) tests were carried out, respectively. In addition, microbiological culture and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were performed on testicle, epidydimus and uterus samples. Six animals (7.5%) tested positive for the presence of B. ovis antibodies and all animals tested negative for the presence of B. abortus antibodies. One AGID-positive animal tested positive at uterine swab culture. PCR was able to amplify DNA of Brucella spp. from the pool of testicle, epidydimus and uterus samples from AGID-positive animals. This is the first report of isolation and detection of B. ovis DNA by PCR in ovine from the Northeast region of Brazil.

Ocorrência de aglutininas anti-Leptospira em ovinos do estado do Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil

Foram pesquisadas aglutininas anti-Leptospira em ovinos do estado do Rio Grande do Norte, Brasil. De agosto a outubro de2001, foram examinados 115 soros de ovinos provenientes de 11 rebanhos situados em quatro municípios, pela prova desoroaglutinação microscópica, utilizando-se 12 sorovares de Leptospira spp. como antígenos. Foram considerados comotítulos positivos os maiores ou iguais a 100. A caracterização dos sorovares mais prováveis levou em conta a titulação e afreqüência. Os resultados encontrados indicam uma soropositividade de 3,5% (4/115). A distribuição dos sorovares maisprováveis foi: castellonis (57,1%), autumnalis (28,6%) e pomona (14,3%).