Brucellosis - Where are we going? by Lillian Beck
"Brucellosis is one of more than 80 diseases of vertebrate animals transmissible to man ( called zoonoses ) . Sir David Bruce, as a member of the British army medical service in 1887, first isolated and identified the causative bacteria from the spleen of a soldier who died from the infection." * The domestic animal is the carrier for this disease , and has a very serious public health problem related to it. Three types of the brucellosis can cause this disease in humans, and the bacteria is carried by goats, buffalo, and sheep (Brucella melitensis ), Brucella Abortus), cattle, and (Brucella suis).
Humans can contract this disease through a break in the skin, and unpasteurized milk, slaughtered meat, or eating fresh cheese which carries the bacteria. This disease in humans is primarily an occupational disease in cattleman, veterinarians, or farmers, and is rarely transmitted from one human to another. This is an insidious disease and can go on unrecognized for weeks or can occur abruptly with the onset of weakness, fever, chills, sweats, body aches and pains and lasts about three to six months. Diagnosis of this disease in both animals and humans is by a blood test. The treatment for this disease is interesting . For humans antibiotics are very effective, but for animals there is no dependable or practical form of treatment. For humans, a three to four week treatment with various forms of drugs, a combination of streptomycin, sulfonamides, and a combination of streptomycin and tetracycline have reduced the duration of the illness and deaths.
Over the years, the cattle industry has had a great fear of this disease, and after discovering the impact on a human or a herd of cattle I can understand why. The cattle industry has spent a tremendous amount of time and money on research and attempts to control this terrible disease.
In the llama industry, when we have sold llamas, shown llamas, or traveled to other states with our llamas we have had to pull blood for Brucellosis. So many people have asked me, "Why was this done to the llama industry ?" This animal as a new species introduced into the United States only a short time ago was suspect. The llama, when first introduced into the United States, was a new mammal which we did not know anything about. We didn’t know how it acted, didn’t know what type of diseases it was capable of contracting or for that matter what it could pass on to man. Could llamas get Brucellosis? Could they be carriers of the disease? For this reason the llama was required to have it’s blood pulled for a number of diseases, one of these was Brucellosis.
So of course, llamas were required by law at the point of entry into the United States to be tested, and also all states have followed this rule. Some times our llamas have had this procedure performed several times over a very short period of time since the state requirement for this has only a 30 day window.
I have done a lot of research and have found no recorded instances of Brucellosis over the last three years. At the present time Georgia is Brucellosis free and has been for several years. A lot of time and research has gone by and many people, including myself feel that there is no evidence that the llama can get this disease or be a carrier. It is really time for all states to rethink their requirement of pulling blood for Brucellosis in llamas. I feel that any states which are Brucellosis free for two to three years should not have this requirement anymore for llamas.