The USDA’s Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) recently amended its brucellosis regulations in an effort to encourage livestock owners to cooperate with the agency’s brucellosis eradication program, thus reducing the likelihood of the disease spreading in this country. Beginning Aug. 12, livestock producers can be compensated for losses of sheep, goats, and horses that are destroyed because of the disease. 

Brucellosis is a contagious disease caused by the bacterium Brucella abortus (and sometimes B. suis) that mainly affects cattle, bison, and swine. Common clinical signs of the disease include spontaneous abortion or birth of weak offspring, reduced milk production, and infertility.

While goats, sheep, and horses are rarely infected with brucellosis in this country, they are susceptible to certain strains. According to the Merck Veterinary Manual, it is unlikely that infected horses are a source of brucellosis for other horses, other animal species, or man.

“However, horses might act as sentinel animals if exposed to cattle with brucellosis (typically through exposure to infective fluids or discharges),” explains Tim Cordes, DVM, senior staff veterinarian for equine diseases at the USDA’s APHIS Veterinary Services