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. 2025 Jan 20;16(1):861.
doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-55737-2.

Camel milk is a neglected source of brucellosis among rural Arab communities

Peter Holloway  1 , Matthew Gibson  2 , Tanja Holloway  3 , Iain Pickett  2 , Brittany Crook  2 , Jacqueline M Cardwell  2 , Stephen Nash  4 , Imadidden Musallam  2 , Bilal Al-Omari  5 , Ahmad Al-Majali  5 , Wail Hayajneh  6 , Ehab Abu-Basha  5 , Punam Mangtani #  3 , Javier Guitian #  2
Affiliations

Camel milk is a neglected source of brucellosis among rural Arab communities

Peter Holloway et al. Nat Commun. .

Abstract

The World Health Organization describes brucellosis as one of the world's leading zoonotic diseases, with the Middle East a global hotspot. Brucella melitensis is endemic among livestock populations in the region, with zoonotic transmission occurring via consumption of raw milk, amongst other routes. Control is largely via vaccination of small ruminant and cattle populations. Due to sociocultural and religious influences camel milk (camelus dromedarius) is widely consumed raw, while milk from other livestock species is largely boiled. To investigate the potential public health impact of Brucella in camels we conduct a cross-sectional study in southern Jordan including 227 herds and 202 livestock-owning households. Here we show daily consumption of raw camel milk is associated with Brucella seropositive status among the study population, ORadj 2.19 (95%CI 1.23-3.94) on multivariable analysis, highlighting the need for socioculturally appropriate control measures; targeted interventions among the camel reservoir being crucial for effective control.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: E.A. was project coordinator for the project “Reducing the threat of MERS-CoV and avian influenza in Jordan and strengthening regional disease surveillance capacity”, supported by the US Department of Defence Threat Reduction Agency, Biological Threat Reduction Program. All other authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study profile.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Location of 227 camel herds sampled for Brucella in southern Jordan February 2014 to October 2018 (due to local grazing movements there were three herds selected from the MoA list for Ma’an (west) that were sampled in the neighbouring region, Tafilah. Results from these herds were attributed to Ma’an.).
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Location of 203 livestock-owning households sampled for Brucella in southern Jordan, September 2017 to October 2018.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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