History of Eradication of the Bovine Brucellosis in Czech Republic

Overview

In the Czech republic, the program of recovery of the livestock from brucellosis caused by the micro-organismsBrucella abortus was successfully completed in 1964. The campaign started in 1959 by the exploration of thecomplete cattle population by agglutination tests. Incidence of the disease was 211 positive cases for each100 thousands, prevalence was 0,676 % (20 481 animal in 654 foci of 34 districts). The prevalence was significantlyhigher in large cattle units. Tens of new cases of the human brucellosis infections were reported. The process ofsanitation was first based on the elimination of infected animals. In the later phase the more radical method wasemployed — the whole herds with infected individuals were eliminated and replaced. During the recovery programmore than 41 thousands of infected animals were eliminated. It required solving many complex methodological,legislative, organisational, economical and social problems. Serological test applied to more the half of the livestockpopulation together with epizootiological, epidemiological and laboratory investigation helped to detect all foci.Eradication brought about substantial improvement of the productive and reproductive features of the cattle andeliminated the risks of infection with this zoonosis to the human population.

Key words:
Brucella abortus, bovine brucellosis, brucellosis eradication, surveillance, zoonoses.