Author : Cheav Chhuon

Summary : Brucellosis is a disease that affects both humans and animals including cattle, sheep, goats, camels, wild animals, and pigs. Swine brucellosis is caused by the intracellular bacterium, Brucella suis (B. suis). Unfortunately, there was no recent record or no updated information which are publicly available on the prevalence of swine brucellosis in the Philippines, with the last report published in the 1990s. Hence, this study was conducted to detect B. suis in pigs slaughtered in Luzon, Philippines. A total of 115 blood samples of pigs from 15 slaughterhouses in 8 provinces were collected to detect and estimate the incidence of B. suis in pigs in Luzon, Philippines by ELISA and qPCR assay. Cavite province had the highest number of tested pigs 18 (15.65%), among the total 115 tested samples, while the lowest number of samples 11 (9.57%) were from Batangas province. Of the total 15 locations, the highest number of samples was from Baguio Slaughterhouse 13 (11.30%), while Balayan Slaughterhouse had only 5 samples with a 4.35% distribution. Unfortunately, all 115 blood samples were negative for B. suis antibody and antigen as confirmed by ELISA and qPCR assay, respectively. Overall, the findings of this study provided updates on the B. suis infection status of swine, suggesting that the B. suis chromosome 2 biovar 1 gene was not detected in the blood of pigs from the 8 provinces of Luzon, Philippines.