Pilot study on the camel brucellosis and paratuberculosis in Western India

Brucellosis, a major zoonosis, has attracted attention due to its reemergence. Similarly, paratuberculosis is one of the major health and production problems of animals with zoonotic concerns. Brucellosis and paratuberculosis have been reported from all parts of country with multiple species involvement. The Rose Bengal plate agglutination test (RBPT) and indirect ELISA (iELISA) are most commonly used tests for diagnosing brucellosis. Similarly, plate ELISA and DTH skin tests are popular tests for paratuberculosis. The recently developed penside test is suitable for door step diagnosis of brucellosis. In the present study plate ELISA and penside test were used to investigate brucellosis, and plate ELISA was used to investigate paratuberculosis in camels. Both the plate ELISA and penside tests revealed 4 (11%) animals to be positive for anti-Brucella antibodies. Penside test revealed results at par to plate ELISA test and showed promising results to be adopted for doorstep Brucella sp. testing. Out of 36 camels suspected for paratuberculosis infection, 12 (33.3%) were positive for the paratuberculosis antibodies in plate ELISA. All brucellosis positive animals were negative for paratuberculosis.