Transmission of brucellosis between diverse animal species and man

The Febris undulans melitensis known practically in man in Portugal since the end of the last century stands diagnosed clinically for the first time in 1893; its existence was confirmed by the laboratory test in 1910. The existence of the Febris undulans Bang should be quite less frequent in Portugal: the cases known as yet are rather very rare. At the present time, as the human contamination caused by the brucellosis-affected animals is not always detected by the clinical symptoms, the research of the brucellar antibodies in the human blood samples has come in vogue in all the official laboratories. In the animals, we could characterize through the available resources the three varieties of the genus Brucella: Br. melitensis, Br. abortus suis and Br. abortus bovis. The infection appearing in cattle, pigs, sheep, goats and horses is found confirmed in most of our districts, but in a quite restricted number of exploitations. The experimental infection (rabbits and guinea pigs) has manifested that the most apt routes are: the nasal, the cutaneous when the skin is lesioned, then the ocular and the cutaneous when the skin is intact and finally the oral and the genital. In actual practice, the transmission of the brucelloses in the animals should be operated by the classical means; the system under which the animals live should have a great influence on the routes of infection. In man, the natural infection should be produced mainly by the enteral and the cutaneous routes, that is: by the ingestion of the raw milk containing the Brucella or the milk diets manufactured with raw milk, or else by the direct contact with the infected animals or with the products of these animals. The surveys on the brucelloses, as elsewhere on all the diseases transmissible to man, should be performed in close collaboration with the authorities of the Public Health and in conformity with a plan established beforehand for facilitating their coordination