ERADICATION OF BRUCELLA MELITENSIS FROM TWO CAPTIVE GAZELLE POPULATIONS IN SAUDI ARABIA

An outbreak of brucellosis occurred in a group of 726 sand gazelles (Gazella marica) at the Prince Mohammed Al-Sudairi Gazelle Breeding Center and in a group of 47 putative "Neumann's gazelles'' (Gazella erlangeri) housed at the King Khalid Wildlife Research Center in Saudi Arabia. Clinical signs of anorexia, poor body condition, enlarged testes, reluctance to walk, swollen carpal joints, and suppurative arthritis were present in 16 sand gazelles and 14 Neumann's gazelles. All clinical cases were evaluated using a card agglutination test, complement fixation, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. All cases were serologically positive for Brucella melitensis, confirmed through culture and isolation of the microorganism. DNA was extracted from the isolated organisms, and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used for sequencing. Evaluation focused on tracking the source of infection, the management of the two outbreaks, and the subsequent diagnosis, treatments, and success, including the successful eradication of Brucella from both populations.