Prevalence of Brucella Species in Raw Milk Produced in the Industrial and Traditional Production Units in Yazd

Backgrounds and Aims: Healthy milk and dairy products are important in human nutrition because of the high value of the food. Contaminated raw milk is the mainly way of transmition of brucellosis to humans.Unpasteurized milk and dairy products can contagion to human and cause mallta fever. So brucellosis is an important zoonotic disease in human and animals especially domestic animals. The aim of this study is determining the contamination of traditional and industrial cow and sheep milk to brucella spp in Yazd.
Totally 198 raw milk samples were randomly cultured in three months period from the units of distribution supply of the milk centers at diffrenet regions in yazd, examined by special brucella agar,species identification was performed by Gram stain, and growth in the presence of aniline dyes, hydrogen sulfide production, and urease test.
Five samples (2.52%) were positive, 4 samples (2.02%) of Brucella.abortus and 1 sample (0.5%) of Brucella.melitensis were confirmed out of 198 cultured milk samples.
The results show the seriousness of the brucllosis transmission to human (Malta fever) through raw and unpasteurized milk.