A Case-Control Study on Risk Factors for Brucellosis in Beef Cattle in Pengyang County in Ningxia
In order to identify the risk factors for Brucella infection in beef cattle in Pengyang County,Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region,a matched case-control study method was used to collect data from 76 positive farms/households by questionnaires and analyzed by conditional logistic regression. The study was based on the principles that farms/households located in the same administrative village,and/or similar breeding scale and the difference in breeding period was within ± 3 years,and a ratio of 1:2 was used to match negative farms.. The results showed that the risk of Brucella infection in beef cattle increased(OR = 5.05,95%CI = 1.50-17.01)in the farms/households who bought cattle via brokers;so did the farms(OR = 1.86,95%CI = 0.92-3.75)where sheep were also kept and history of abortion in ewes was available in the past two years. It was concluded that the transaction mode of beef cattle was closely related to local infection in the county. Therefore,it was recommended to strengthen the management of cattle brokers,improve their awareness concerning brucellosis prevention and control,and further investigate the prevalence of the disease in local sheep. A basis was thereby provided for future development of control strategies for brucellosis in local beef cattle.