Brucella

Brucella bacteria are small, gram-negative, strictly aerobic immobile short rods or cocobacilli. They do not form spores. These are typical animal parasites. B. abortus, B. melitensis , B. suis and B. canis are pathogenic to humans.

Cultivation and biochemistry
Brucella require an extended cultivation time. Colonies have a glossy moist appearance, can be translucent to cloudy and often show fluorescence. They are catalase positive and oxidase positive. Bacteria produce endotoxin, which in its effects resembles enterobacterial endotoxin.

Disease
See the Brucellosis page for more information .

Brucellosis is a typical anthropozoonosis, the infection is typical in both domestic and wild animals. The site of infection in humans is most often injured skin or conjunctiva, and infection can occur by inhaling a contaminated aerosol or consuming improperly treated milk from sick animals. Thanks to a careful veterinary inspection, brucellosis has been eradicated in the Czech Republic; today, only imported diseases occur in our country.

Brucellas are among the intracellular parasites of phagocytic cells, in macrophages they are distributed throughout the body. Granulomas subsequently form in the affected organs. The course of the disease varies from species to brucella.

Diagnostics
Diagnosis is more complicated due to non-specific clinical manifestations, it is most often performed using blood culture and serologically. In antibody-based assays, brucellosis show cross-reactivity with Francisella tularensis. The most reliable method of diagnosis is cultivation, which is often not successful due to its complexity.

Therapy
The combination of doxycycline with rifampicin is given for six weeks. In children, doxycklin is replaced by co-trimoxazole.

Related articles

 * Brucellosis

Reference

 * 1) ↑Jump up to:a b c d VOTAVA, Miroslav, et al. Medical microbiology special. 1st edition. Brno: Neptun, 2003. 495 pp.  ISBN 80-902896-6-5.
 * 2) ↑Jump up to:a b c BENEŠ, Jiří, et al. Infectious medicine. 1st edition. Galén, 2009. 651 pp.  ISBN 978-80-7262-644-1.