Diagnosis of brucellosis in lactating ewes using milk-elisa [electronic resource].

Includes references.

Milk and blood samples collected from 731 lactating ewes were examined for brucellosis using milk-ELISA, serum-EUSA, RBPT, SAT and MRT. Of these ewes, 150 were from brucellosis free sheep flock, which were found negative in all tests used. While, of the remaining 581 ewes, III were positive in serum-ELISA, 107 in milk-ELISA, 96 in RBPT, 85 in SAT, 48 in MRT and B.melitensis biovar 3 was isolated from the milk of 39 infected ewes. Of the 111 serum-ELISA positive ewes, 101 were positive and 10 were negative in milk-ELISA, whereas of the 107 milk-ELISA positive ewes, 6 ewes were negative in scrum-ELISA. All together, 101 ewes were positive and 464 were negative in both the assays, while 16 ewes yield variable results. The sensitivity and positive predictive value in the infected flocks were 94.39% and 90.99% respectively. The milk-ELISA for diagnosing brucellosis seems to be an attractive alternative of serum-ELISA particularly in the lactating ewes.

Summary in Arabic.