Aim: To present the main goals and activities of the strategy for control of brucellosis caused by B. melitensis in sheep and goats in the Republic of Macedonia.
Methods: Relevant documents and reports from the Veterinary Directorate were used to present the approaches for control of the disease in small ruminants in R. Macedonia. The new strategy for control and eradication of brucellosis started its implementation in 2008 with combination of measures for test and slaughter of the sero-positive sheep and goats, mass vaccination and vaccination of young replacements.
Results: In 2008, a total of 596,213 animals have been tested in 5,820 flocks out of which 16,853 (2.8%) had Brucella positive results in 636 (10.9%) flocks. In 2009, a total of 543,011 sheep and goats had been tested in 5,507 flocks out of which 9,606 (1.8%) animals showed positive results in 666 (12.1%) flocks. While the number of positive flocks does not indicate great improvement, the individual number of Brucella-positive animals has decreased dramatically. The number of human cases in 2008 and 2009 were 490 and 287 respectively. Direct savings only from compensation to farmers for slaughtered animals for 2008 and 2009 are estimated to be more than 100,000,000 denars (~1.6 million Euro).
Conclusion: RESULTS from 2009 have been evaluated and foreseen amendments will allow that the country will be systematically divided in a more detailed epidemiological fashion, i.e. division of the country into epidemiological units based on the disease status and accepted risk and implementation of appropriate measures therein.