Bovine brucellosis is a contagius zoonotic disease caused by Brucella abortus primarily found in cattle. The disease causes various reproductive disorders resulting in the decrease of production, productivity and reproductivity in cattle. The district of Belu (DB) is a brucellosis endemic area with the highest prevalence rate in the province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT). The control programs that have been implemented since 1993, i.e. vaccination using strain-19, active surveillance, and test and slaugther approach, did not significantly reduce the prevalence rate. The objectives of the current cross-sectional study were to reveal the latest brucellosis prevalence rate and to identify risk factors associated with the infection in the DB. A total of 2000 cattle belonging to 220 farmers was multistage randomly selected and used throughout the study. Serums from those cattle were subjected to Rose Bengal Test (RBT) reactors of which were Complement Fixation Tested. Brucellosis in cattle was indicated by the positive reaction on CFT. The results show that the prevalence rate of brucellosis of among cattle was found to be 14.5%, and the mean of the prevalence rate at farm level was 14.9%. The unweigthed logistic reggression revealed that, in orderly fashion, longer calving interval (odds ratio, OR=5.07), history of stillbirth (OR=3.29), pregnancy (OR=2.90), infertility (OR=2.48), history of abortion (OR=2.43), loosened in pasture (OR=2.14), lactation (OR=2.04), subdistrict of West Tasifeto (OR=3.12) and subdistrict of Rinhat (OR=0,16), are significantly associated with brucellosis. Communal pasture, vaccination coverage less than 60%, communal barn, and the existence of CFT reactors are associated with higher prevalence rate at farm level, while herdsize and well water sources with lower prevalence. Therefore, vaccination program has to be improved especially in the subdistricts of higher prevalence rate.
Keywords : Bovine brucellosis, Brucella abortus, District of Belu, Cross sectional study
Petra R.M.Tae Lake (08/275851/PKH/00370)
Supervisor: Dr. drh. Asmarani Kusumawati,MP and Prof.drh.Setyawan Budiharta, MPH.,Ph.D