In the present study, the outbreak patterns of bovine brucellosis in Korea from 2000 to 2011 were analyzed to understand the epidemiological evolution of this disease in the country. A total of 85,521 brucella reactor animals were identified during 14,215 outbreaks over the 12-year study period. The number of bovine brucellosis cases increased after 2003 and peaked in 2006 before decreasing thereafter. The majority of the bovine brucellosis cases were Korean native cattle, Han Woo. The numbers of human brucellosis cases and cattle outbreaks increased and decreased in the same pattern. The correlation coefficient for human and bovine cases per year was 0.96 (95% confidence interval = 0.86 ˜ 0.99; p < 10⁻³). The epidemiological characteristics of bovine brucellosis appeared to be affected by the intensity of eradication programs that mainly involved a test- and-slaughter policy. Findings from the present study were based on freely available statistics from web pages maintained by government agencies. This unlimited access to information demonstrates the usefulness of government statistics for continually monitoring the health of animal populations.
Keywords: Korea; brucellosis; cattle; epidemiology; eradication.