title: Gaps in brucellosis eradication campaign in sheep and goats in Republic of Macedonia: lessons learned.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify why "test and slaughter policy" for eradication of brucellosis did not significantly reduce the prevalence in sheep and goats in Macedonia.
  
  
  METHODS
  Coverage of sampled vs expected number of sheep and goats, absolute number of positive animals, prevalence, frequency distribution, and classes of disease prevalence were retrospectively analyzed at the village level for 2004-2006. A comparative analysis of the disease prevalence in the investigated villages was also performed. The percentage of slaughtered animals was analyzed for 2000-2006.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We found differences between the expected and actual number of sampled animals, which were related to the type of livestock breeding. Traditionally maintained flocks and migratory flocks were considered to be responsible for the transmission of the disease. The absolute number of positive animals and the number of infected vs non-infected holdings did not decrease over the study period. Most of the villages had between 1 and 10 positive animals. Between 2000 and 2006, 55% of the positive animals were slaughtered, 41% in 2001 and up to 79% in 2002. Moreover, in 2005 and 2006, 34% and 53% of sheep and goats were found to be positive at the slaughter line, respectively, demonstrating that only 21%-23% of the infected animals were correctly removed from the herds.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Based on the findings of this study, Macedonia changed its control strategy from "test and slaughter" to a vaccination policy for sheep and goats in 2008.
authors: Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Skopje, Macedonia, naletoski@fvm.ukim.edu.mk
authors: Ivanco
authors: I
authors: Naletoski
authors: Toni
authors: T
authors: Kirandziski
authors: Dine
authors: D
authors: Mitrov
authors: Kiril
authors: K
authors: Krstevski
authors: Igor
authors: I
authors: Dzadzovski
authors: Sinisa
authors: S
authors: Acevski
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002006:Brucellosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000517:prevention & control / Q000662:veterinary*; D015511:Goat Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006041:Goats; D006291:Health Policy; D006801:Humans; D015995:Prevalence; D015397:Program Evaluation; D015980:Public Health Practice; D018843:Republic of North Macedonia / Q000453:epidemiology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012756:Sheep; D012757:Sheep Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000517:prevention & control*