Detection of Brucella spp. in vaginal swab samples of aborting cattle: comparison of immunoperoxidase to bacteriological culture technique.

Brucellosis is an important disease in terms of economic losses in cattle breeding. Brucella spp. associated abortion is common in Kars,Turkey. Determination of Brucellosis cases therefore poses great importance. In this study, an immunochemical staining technique was tested in detecting cattle with Brucellosis and compared to bacteriological culture technique. Post-abortion, total of 261 vaginal swab samples were collected from cows. Brucella spp. were isolated from 25 animals by cultural method. All Brucella isolates were identified as Brucella abortus field strain and biotyped as B. abortus biotype 3. Smears prepared from culture positive vaginal samples were stained by immunoperoxidase technique, and 22 out of 25 animals were detected as Brucella-positive. Sensitivity and specificity of the immunoperoxidase technique were calculated as 88% and 92%, respectively.