Low prevalence of Brucella agglutinins in blood donors in central province of Iran

Background and objective: brucellosis is a zoonotic disease of worldwide distribution and has great economic importance. despite its control in many countries,it remains endemic in iran. brucellosis was investigated in many high risk occupational groups; however,few studies on the prevalence of brucellosis among blood donors are available. to determine the seroprevalence of brucellosis antibodies in blood donors,a serological study was carried out in central province of iran. materials and methods: a total of 897 healthy blood donors with mean age 37.23 ± 10.9 years were enrolled in the study. laboratory tests including standard tube agglutination test (sta) and 2-mercaptoethanol (2me) agglutination were checked in all samples. sta dilution ≥ 1:80,and in the presence of 2-mercaptoethanol (2me) agglutination ≥ 20 was considered positive. results: out of 897 cases,11.9% were inhabitants of rural areas. 41.5% had history of consumption of unpasteurized dairy products and 9.3% had history of contact with domestic animals. a very low level of brucella agglutinins was present in 3(0.33%) of the samples and only one sample (0.11%) was found to be truly positive for brucella agglutinins. 2me was negative in all samples. none of these 4 subjects showed signs and symptoms of brucellosis in 6 months follow-up. conclusion: on the basis of our data,brucellosis has no epidemiological and clinical importance in our blood donors; therefore,it is not recommended to perform screening tests such as,sta and 2me to identify brucellosis antibodies in the sera of blood donors.