Evaluation of problems and possible solutions linked to the surveillance and control of bovine brucellosis in sub-Saharan Africa, with special emphasis on Nigeria.

Bovine brucellosis is disease of economic and public health significance in sub-Saharan Africa. The disease is distributed worldwide but some countries have been able to eradicate brucellosis from their territories using elaborate brucellosis control and eradication programmes that have been targeted primarily at livestock (the main reservoir host for the disease). This has been achieved mainly by vaccination, test and slaughter, as well as by regular surveillance for early detection of the disease. Despite the level of knowledge on the epidemiology of bovine brucellosis, there has been limited success in controlling bovine brucellosis in sub-Saharan Africa. Some of the problems associated with the surveillance and control of bovine brucellosis in sub-Saharan Africa include poor disease reporting, insufficient financial resources of governments (poor economic status of most countries in sub-Saharan Africa), as well as competing national health priorities, inadequate infrastructures and personnel, the commonly practised seasonal grazing or transhumant husbandry systems and communal grazing, inadequate monitoring of the disease in wildlife and poor communication and education of stakeholders. Since previous attempts at the control of bovine brucellosis have failed in Africa, it was considered important to address this aspect, using an approach that differed from the classic veterinary regulatory approach. Possible ways of dealing with this problem using complementary measures to the conventional approaches are also proposed.