low prevalence of brucella agglutinins in blood donors in central province of iran.

background and objective: brucellosis is a zoonotic disease of worldwide distribution and has great economic importance. despite its control in many countries, it remains endemic in iran. brucellosis was investigated in many high risk occupational groups; however, few studies on the prevalence of brucellosis among blood donors are available. to determine the seroprevalence of brucellosis antibodies in blood donors, a serological study was carried out in central province of iran. materials and methods: a total of 897 healthy blood donors with mean age 37.23 ± 10.9 years were enrolled in the study. laboratory tests including standard tube agglutination test (sta) and 2-mercaptoethanol (2me) agglutination were checked in all samples. sta dilution ≥ 1:80, and in the presence of 2-mercaptoethanol (2me) agglutination ≥ 20 was considered positive. results: out of 897 cases, 11.9% were inhabitants of rural areas. 41.5% had history of consumption of unpasteurized dairy products and 9.3% had history of contact with domestic animals. a very low level of brucella agglutinins was present in 3(0.33%) of the samples and only one sample (0.11%) was found to be truly positive for brucella agglutinins. 2me was negative in all samples. none of these 4 subjects showed signs and symptoms of brucellosis in 6 months follow-up. conclusion : on the basis of our data, brucellosis has no epidemiological and clinical importance in our blood donors; therefore, it is not recommended to perform screening tests such as, sta and 2me to identify brucellosis antibodies in the sera of blood donors.