Safety Of Brucella Abortus Strain Rb51 In Black Bears

Authors

Steven C. Olsen, US Department of AgricultureFollow
Jack Rhyan, US Department of Agriculture
T. Gidlewski, US Department of AgricultureFollow
Jesse Goff, US Department of Agriculture
W. C. Stoffregen, US Department of Agriculture

Date of this Version

2004

Citation

Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 40(3), 2004, pp. 429–433

Abstract

In two studies conducted from October 1999 to March 2000 and December 2000 to April 2001, adult black bears (Ursus americanus) were orally inoculated with 1.4–3.1X10¹⁰ colony-forming units (CFU) of Brucella abortus strain RB51 (SRB51, n=12) or 2 ml of 0.15 M NaCl solution (saline, n=11). We did not detect a difference (P>0.05) in antibody titers to SRB51 in serum obtained before vaccination, at 8 wk after vaccination, or at necropsy at 21 or 23 wk after vaccination between SRB51-vaccinated and nonvaccinated bears. The SRB51 vaccine strain was recovered from tissues obtained at necropsy from one of six SRB51-vaccinated bears in study 1, but none of the six SRB51-vaccinated bears in study 2. Vaccination of black bears with SRB51 did not appear to influence (P>0.05) reproductive performance.