A serological survey of Brucella spp. in red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Portugal

• Author(s): Pires, Humberto ; Matos, Manuela ; Cardoso, Luis ; Lopes, Ana Patrícia ; Fontes, Maria da Conceição ; Santos Pintado, Cristina Maria Baptista ; Figueira, Luis Manuel Faria ; Mesquita, João R. ; Matos, Ana ; Coelho, Ana Cláudia
• Date: 2023
• Persistent ID: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.11/10082
• Origin: Repositório Científico do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco
• Subject(s): Brucella spp.; ELISA; Red deer; Seroprevalence
• Document Type: Conference proceedings
• Language: English
• Contributor(s): Repositório Científico do Instituto Politécnico de Castelo Branco

Description

Wildlife has been identified as important sentinels for the surveillance of zoonotic pathogens such Brucella infection. Systematic brucellosis monitoring in wildlife is not demanded by regulatory acts, but several studies have reported the presence of this infection in European countries. In order to investigate the importance of red deer (Cervus elaphus) in the epidemiology of Brucella infection in Portugal, a serological survey was performed on samples of 276 hunted red deer from the centre of Portugal.