Perceptions and preparedness of veterinarians to combat brucellosis through Brucellosis Control Programme in India

Vet World Vol.13 February-2020 Article-1

Research Article

Veterinary World, 13(2): 222-230

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2020.222-230

R. Shome¹, M. Nagalingam¹, R. Priya¹, S. Sahay¹, T. Kalleshamurthy¹, A. Sharma², R. G. Bambal², H. Rahman³, and B. R. Shome¹

1. Indian Council of Agricultural Research-National Institute of Veterinary Epidemiology and Disease Informatics, Yelahanka, Bengaluru, Karnataka, India.
2. Department of Animal Husbandry and Dairying, Ministry of Agriculture, Government of India, Krishi Bhavan, New Delhi, India.
3. International Livestock Research Institute, New Delhi, India.

Background and Aim: Brucellosis caused by bacteria belongs to the genus Brucella is an important zoonosis and constitutes a serious public health hazard worldwide including India. The present study aimed to estimate the knowledge of veterinarians on brucellosis, its public health threat, diagnosis, and vaccination.

Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted during 2013-2015 and 453 veterinarians representing 11 states/Union Territories (UT) of India (Assam, Tripura, Meghalaya, Goa, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, and Punjab) were interviewed using self-administered questionnaire.

Results: Out of 453 veterinarians, 71.74% stated handling of the animals on day-to-day basis and 28.25% were engaged in administration activities. The veterinarians ranked foot-and-mouth disease and brucellosis at the first and fourth ranks among the list of ten economic impacted diseases in the country. A significant association was observed between laboratory confirmation with those who handled brucellosis-suspected cases (p=0.000). Similarly, significant association was noted for the availability of vials/slides (p=0.114), vacutainers (p=0.008), icebox (p=0.103), and refrigerator (p=0.106) for those who preferred laboratory diagnosis. Only 20% of the veterinarians recommended vaccination against bovine brucellosis, and 17% obtained laboratory confirmation for the brucellosis-suspected cases.

Conclusion: The study highlighted the need for awareness programs, laboratory facilities, veterinary doctors, and protective measures for the veterinarians for combating brucellosis through the control program in the country. Keywords: brucellosis, control program, India, knowledge, veterinary professionals.

Keywords: brucellosis, control program, India, knowledge, veterinary professionals.

How to cite this article: Shome R, Nagalingam M, Priya R, Sahay S, Kalleshamurthy T, Sharma A, Bambal RG, Rahman H, Shome BR (2020) Perceptions and preparedness of veterinarians to combat brucellosis through brucellosis control program in India, Veterinary World, 13(2): 222-230.

Received: 19-09-2019 Accepted: 28-12-2019 Published online: 03-02-2020

Corresponding author: R. Shome E-mail: rajeswarishome@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.222-230

Copyright: Shome, et al. 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.