Global epidemiological landscape of brucellosis in animals from 2005 to 2022

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Animal brucellosis is one of the most common zoonoses worldwide and poses a serious threat to the population; however, the epidemic evolution of this disease remains unclear. In the present study, we conducted an epidemiological analysis of the numbers of reported cases, new outbreaks, and animals killed and disposed of, slaughtered, and vaccinated on five continents from the World Organization for Animal Health databases. The number of reported cases and new outbreaks on five continents has declined annually, consistent with the declining trend of reported human brucellosis cases in America, Europe, and Oceania. However, the epidemic trajectory in Asia and Africa is nearly inverse to the incidence rate and number of reported cases in humans. These findings highlight serious deficiencies in animal brucellosis surveillance on these two continents. The number of killed, disposed of, and slaughtered infected animals has declined in Asia and Africa, enabling the maintenance and persistent spread of brucellosis. The number of reported cases significantly positively correlated with the number of slaughtered animals (R = 0.91, p < 0.001) and new outbreaks (R = 0.83, p < 0.001), and the number of susceptible animals was exponentially greater than the number of vaccinated animals, providing robust evidence that surveillance projects cannot be stopped without careful consideration due to the potential for recurrence. The “test–vaccinate–cull” approach, paired with stricter regulations, including strengthening surveillance and reporting systems, improving vaccination coverage, strictly controlling animal movement, improving public awareness, and launching cross-sector collaboration, is critical to curb the spread of this disease.