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Abstract

Brucellosis is an infectious disease of the genitourinary tract of sheep, goats, pigs, cattle, dogs, and other animals and of the reticuloendothelial system of humans. The damage sustained from brucellosis includes abortion of livestock, loss of protein resources through contamination of meat, milk, and milk products, and loss of human productivity through prolonged illness. The four species of brucellae important in human medicine include Brucella melitensis, found in sheep and goats; Brucella suis, which infects pigs; Brucella abortus, a cattle pathogen; and Brucells canis, which causes abortion in dogs. Brucella ovis, a pathogen of sheep, and Brucella neotomae, which occurs in the desert rat, have not been shown to cause human disease.

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Moyer, N.P., Holcomb, L.A. (1988). Brucellosis. In: Balows, A., Hausler, W.J., Ohashi, M., Turano, A., Lennete, E.H. (eds) Laboratory Diagnosis of Infectious Diseases. Springer, New York, NY. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4612-3898-0_14

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