Ani Setianingrum, Widagdo Sri Nugroho, Tri Anggraeni Kusumastuti, Herawati
Brucellosis is recognized as one of the most widespread zoonotic diseases and is often overlooked, impacting livestock populations worldwide. Annual routine screenings utilize serological assays, such as the Rose Bengal test (RBT) and the complement fixation test (CFT), to identify the presence of brucellosis. The present study aimed to evaluate the diagnostic and discriminative performance of the CFT, the locally produced RBT antigen from Indonesia, the commercial RBT antigen (Pourquier), and the indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) using sera from Indonesian goats and sheep. A total of 184 serum samples were collected, including 92 from goats and 92 from sheep. The samples were obtained through jugular venipuncture from animals on small-scale goat and sheep farms in Java Island, Indonesia. The results were analyzed to determine true prevalence (TP), accuracy, and cross-tabulation with parallel interpretation to assess the sensitivity and specificity of each test analysis. The TP of brucellosis in small ruminant serum samples using local RBT, Pourquier RBT, CFT, and indirect ELISA was 6.99%, 9.74%, 0%, and 14.78% in goats, and 6.92%, 20.34%, 0%, and 7.81% in sheep, respectively. Moderate Kappa interrater reliability was observed between the local and Pourquier RBTs for both goats (0.537) and sheep (0.440). The combined RBT sensitivity in goats and sheep was 27% and 20%, respectively, while the combined RBT specificity was 92% in goats and 80.5% in sheep. Using more than one diagnostic method is essential for screening and investigating brucellosis in goat and sheep populations. A combination of RBT and indirect ELISA tests is recommended to identify Brucella reactors among small ruminants in Indonesia. © The Author(s) 2025. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Sain Veteriner Doctoral Programme, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, 55281, Indonesia; Department of Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, 55281, Indonesia; Department of Socio-Economic, Faculty of Animal Science, Gadjah Mada University, Yogyakarta, 55281, Indonesia; Department of Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Brawijaya University, Malang, 65151, Indonesia
