Large Country Screening to Discover all Domestic Animal Herds Affected by Selected Zoonoses

Effective country-wide preventive, control and eradication programmes require full knowledge of specific epizootiological situation. A description is given of a three-year international programme aimed at control of animal glanders, tuberculosis and brucellosis that was carried out simultaneously in all 16 Mongolian provinces by expeditions of veterinary staff of five countries. The objective was to discover all domestic animal herds affected by these infections transmissible to humans and to initiate particular control programmes. A total of 37, 608, 253 specific tests were carried out. Ratios of the investigations to population average (I/P) were as follows: tests for glanders in horses 2.43 and in camels 0.53; tests for brucellosis in cattle 1.42, in camels 0.69, in sheep 1.53, and in goats 1.37; tests for tuberculosis in cattle 1.53. The following results of testing were obtained: for glanders, from 5,046,070 allergic tests in horses 241,157 were positive, i.e. 4.78 %; from 332,684 allergic tests in camels 380 were positive, i.e. 0.11 %; from 126,960 serological tests in horses 24,760 were positive, i.e. 19.50 %. Results of serological testing for brucellosis, from 2,892,658 tests in cattle 192,601 were positive, i.e. 6.66 %, from 432,919 tests in camels 9,987 were positive, i.e. 2.31 %, from 19,533,637 tests in sheep 320,709 were positive, i.e. 1.64 % and from 5,834,450 tests in goats 136,222 were positive, i.e. 2.33 %. From 677,402 allergic tests for tuberculosis in cattle in two provinces 427 were positive, i.e. 0.06 %. This programme required an estimated 120,000 expedition person-working days and about twice as many assisting person-working days. Apart from local effects during these expeditions, the results created a basis for national long-term follow-up and preventive, control and eradication measures for these diseases.