Isolation, and molecular characterization of Brucella isolates in cattle milk in Uganda

Abstract

Brucellosis is endemic in livestock and humans inUganda and its transmission involves amultitude of risk factors like consumption of milk frominfected cattle. To shed new light on the epidemiology of brucellosis in Uganda the present study used phenotypic and molecular approaches to delineate the Brucella species, biovars, and genotypes shed in cattle milk. Brucella abortus without a biovar designation was isolated from eleven out of 207 milk samples from cattle in Uganda. These isolates had a genomic monomorphism at 16 variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) loci and showed in turn high levels of genetic variation when compared with otherAfrican strains or other B. abortus biovars from other parts of the world. This study further highlights the usefulness of MLVA asan epidemiological tool for investigation of Brucella infections.