Ocorrência de brucelose em rebanhos bubalinos do Maranhão / Occurrence of brucellosis in buffalo herds of Maranhão

ABSTRACT

Brucellosis is an infectious disease of chronic character. In buffalos, this disease is caused by thebacteria Brucella abortus which especially affects the reproductive system and is characterized mainly by theoccurrence of abortions in the final third of pregnancy. The aim of this study was to verify the occurrence ofbrucellosis in buffalo herds in the State of Maranhao. For serological diagnosis of buffalo brucellosis, BufferedAcidified Antigen test was used as a screening test, and serums that reacted positively were submitted toconfirmatory test of 2-mercaptoethanol (2-ME). The results showed that 1.3% (n = 6) animals were positive inthe confirmatory test. Acknowledging Chaves and collaborators research (2012), who observed a frequency of5.18%, a rate considered low and close to our results. Concluding that the low frequency of positive animals inherds Maranhão can be attributed to supervision and awareness of the producers.(AU)