Int. J. One Health Vol.7 Article-6

Estimation of Brucella and Mycobacterium bovis contamination in bovine milk in Africa

Background and Aim: Bovine brucellosis and tuberculosis are zoonotic bacterial diseases transmitted through the consumption of raw milk and dairy products. Many developed countries have eliminated bovine brucellosis and tuberculosis in their cattle herds, however, the diseases are still endemic in Africa. Despite the public health risk of these pathogens, the sale and consumption of unpasteurized milk are still common in some African countries. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of Brucella and Mycobacterium bovis in bovine milk.

Materials and Methods: A conceptual model for milk contamination was constructed and 1 million simulations were performed using data from published articles.

Results: Brucella milk contamination was estimated at a median of 8.68% (interquartile range [IQR]: 5.95-11.97%; range: 2.41-25.16%). The median prevalence of M. bovis was estimated at 6.86% (IQR: 4.25-9.40%; range: 0.01-15.16%).

Conclusion: These results indicate that there is a risk of Brucella and M. bovis transmission through the consumption of unpasteurized milk. The findings of this study highlight the need to improve the safety and quality of informally marketed milk in the region. Keywords: Africa, Brucella, cattle, milk, Mycobacterium bovis, zoonoses.

Keywords: Africa, Brucella, cattle, milk, Mycobacterium bovis, zoonoses.

Received: 06-10-2020  Accepted: 19-01-2021    Published online: 26-02-2021

Corresponding author: Nozyechi Ngulube Chidumayo   E-mail: nozyechic@yahoo.com

DOI: 10.14202/IJOH.2021.37-41

Copyright: Chidumayo This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.