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. 2024 May;10(3):e1446.
doi: 10.1002/vms3.1446.

Impact of herd mobility on brucellosis seroprevalence and spread risk resulting from cross-border transhumance

Wilfried Délé Oyetola  1 , Samba Daou  1 , Bassirou Bonfoh  2 , Rianatou Bada Alambedji  1
Affiliations

Impact of herd mobility on brucellosis seroprevalence and spread risk resulting from cross-border transhumance

Wilfried Délé Oyetola et al. Vet Med Sci. 2024 May.

Abstract

Background: Cross-border livestock mobility through transhumance is mainly practiced in West African countries for seasonal access to resources and market. Cross-border herds are involved in the dynamic of transboundary animal diseases among them brucellosis taken as model. Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease causing abortion.

Objectives: This study explores the seroprevalence of brucellosis according to mobility and infection spread between Mali and Côte d'Ivoire in the context of seasonal cross-border transhumance.

Methods: From February to April 2021, a transversal serological survey of brucellosis was conducted on 521 cattle from 111 transhumant herds and 283 cattle from 59 sedentary herds, all from Mali.

Results: The global individual seroprevalence for Brucella spp. in transhumant and sedentary cattle from Mali was 8.2% (95% CI = 6.0-10.5). At herd level, seroprevalence was 21.2% with a significant variation between transhumant (11.7%) and sedentary (39.0%) herds. For herds in transhumance, cattle seropositivity was associated with a previous infection suspected by herdsmen odds ratio (OR = 4.4; 95% CI = 1.1-18.1) and unknown abortion aetiology (OR = 4.3; 95% CI = 1.0-17.3). The departure region (coming from Sikasso) and previous brucellosis infection or unexplained abortion could be used to predict Brucella infection in transhumant herds with a probability of around 60%. The risk of brucellosis introduction in host regions was high despite the individual animal seroprevalence of 3.6% and a low sale rate in transhumant cattle.

Conclusions: The findings suggest that testing transhumant during border control and survey of cattle markets and sales could improve risk control of the spread of disease at regional scale.

Keywords: Mali; brucellosis; cattle; sedentary; transhumance.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as potential conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Locations of study areas in Côte d'Ivoire and Mali. Transhumant and sedentary herds were all sampled in borders regions in Côte d'Ivoire and Mali, respectively.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Proportion of cross border pastoralists who knew brucellosis and related signs occurred during herd infection. Brucellosis was knowing in Fulani language as Bakalé (26/111) and in Senufo language as konofilibana (17/111). Signs observed and management of suspicion cattle were indicated by herdsmen (27/111) who self‐think that their herd was infected.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Probability of brucellosis invasion in cattle population of host regions (Bagoue and Folon regions) in Côte d'Ivoire through cattle sold from herds in transhumance from Mali. Line blue is the variation of invasion probability considering the number of cattle sold (42) from the sample herds. Overall, 0.3% to 0.6% of cattle would be sold during the annual transhumance in Bagoue and Folon regions. Respectively, lines green and red correspond to invasion probabilities from maximum (216) and minimum (108) estimated number of cattle sold among 54,139 cattle in transhumance in 2019 from Mali.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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