Histological changes in canine placenta during acute brucellosis

Brucellosis is a disease that generally occurs in animals such as cows, pigs, dogs, cattles and goats. Brucella are gram negative, non-motile, non-spore forming coccobacilli bacteria (Dr Delia Skan, August 2004). The genus Brucella comprises at least 8 species named according to the preferred mammal hosts (Maria-Jesus Grillo, 2012). B.melitensis, B.abortus, B.suis and B.canis are the most important species and they preferentially infect goats and sheeps, bovines and swine and dogs respectively (Moreno E and Moriyon, 2006). Cross-infection within species adds to the complexity of the disease (Ettinger et al., 1995). Around the world more than 500,000 human infections are reported annually (Pappas et al., 2006). It is one of the major zoonotic diseases in the world so it is transferrable to humans by drinking of unsterilized milk or meat of the infected animals or coming in very close contact with their secretions. Human to human transfer can be due to sexual contact or from mother to child, is rare but possible (Dr Delia Skan, August 2004). Unpasteurized milk is a common source of infection, as is inhalation from carcasses among abattoir workers (Godfroid, 2005). Brucellosis is an important human disease in many parts of the world and yet it is often unrecognized and frequently goes unreported (Dean et al., 2012). ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 2 Number 8 (2013) pp. 139-143 http://www.ijcmas.com