Brucellosis and Animals: How Hunters, Dog Owners and Animal Workers Can Avoid It

People get brucellosis through contact with infected animals, or by eating or drinking contaminated animal products such as undercooked meat or raw milk products. The risk is higher for people whose jobs or hobbies bring them close to animals — dog breeders and hunters, for example. Veterinarians can diagnose, and sometimes treat, brucellosis in animals.

Hunting

Many hunted animals can carry brucellosis:

• wild hogs (feral swine);
• deer, elk and moose;
• bison;
• caribou.

Predators such as bears and wolves can catch it by eating infected animals, and hunting dogs are at risk through close contact — including eating the meat. You can get it by eating meat that isn't properly cooked, or by handling skins, tissues or fluids unsafely.

Don't touch sick or dead animals. An animal can look healthy and still be infected. Freezing, smoking, drying and pickling meat do not kill the bacteria.

Safe field dressing:

• use clean, sharp knives for dressing and butchering;
• wear eye protection and latex or rubber gloves;
• keep bare skin away from the animal's fluids and organs, and don't touch hunting dogs that have had contact with the animal;
• afterwards, bag and throw away disposable gloves and the parts you won't eat;
• as soon as you can, wash your hands with soap and warm water for 20 seconds and dry them with a clean cloth;
• don't feed dogs raw meat or other parts of the carcass;
• disinfect tools and reusable gloves — for example with dilute bleach, mixed as the label says;
• cook the meat thoroughly before eating it.

Dogs

If you think you have been exposed through a dog, contact your local or state health department.

Sick dogs often show signs, but they look like other diseases:

• swollen lymph nodes; an enlarged spleen;
• back pain from spinal infection;
• eye infections;
• not wanting to move, walk or eat;
• changes to the fur, and in behavior.

More often, owners don't know until breeding or reproductive problems appear. Females often can't get pregnant or lose pregnancies; males may have swollen testicles or a swollen scrotum, or an infection from licking it; either sex may get abscesses on the spine.

• Shelters, rescue groups and breeders may not know a dog is infected — ask your breeder whether they test for brucellosis.
• A dog with brucellosis can pass it to other dogs and people at home.
• It can't be cured in dogs. If your dog is sick, or tests positive, talk to your veterinarian.

The Merck Veterinary Manual has more for dog owners.

Working with animals

Some jobs carry a higher risk because they bring more contact with contaminated meat, milk or body fluids:

• slaughterhouse workers;
• herders and other animal workers;
• animal caretakers — veterinarians, vet techs, shelter staff;
• laboratory workers;
• animal breeders.

Anyone handling animal tissues or fluids should keep bacteria out of their eyes, cuts and broken skin by wearing:

• rubber gloves, preferably disposable;
• goggles;
• gowns or aprons;
• closed-toed shoes and shoe covers;
• masks or respirators if needed.

Wear gloves to clean any surface the tissues or fluids touched, use disinfectant mixed as the label says, and leave it on for the time the maker recommends before wiping or scrubbing it off.

Sources

Based on "Brucellosis and Animals," Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The source's photograph is a stock picture and is not reproduced.