Bosnia region acts to curb brucellosis outbreak

SARAJEVO, May 22 (Reuters) - Bosnia's Muslim-Croat federation has ordered measures to contain further outbreaks of the cattle disease brucellosis that might have infected more than 1,000 people this year, a top health official said on Thursday.

Brucellosis is a bacterial disease that affects sheep, goats and cattle and the main reason for outbreaks are nomadism, illegal transport and import of animals, chief epidemiologist Zlatko Puvacic said.

"The situation is critical and this is only a tip of an iceberg," Puvacic said, adding about 400 people tested positive between January and April this year, which was more than the total number infected in 2004-2006.

"There may be another 1,000 of those who do not show symptoms and have not sought medical assistance," Puvacic told Reuters on telephone.

People get the disease through contact with infected animals. It can also spread through contaminated or unpasteurised milk.

Puvacic said that within a week, all communities would have to set up quarantine zones and allocate special sites for burial of infected cattle that will be culled by health services.

Out of 72,000 sheep tested in 2008 in the Muslim-Croat federation, about six percent tested positive.

The figures for the Serb Republic, an autonomous region that makes up Bosnia along with the Muslim-Croat federation, were not available but Puvacic said the situation was similar.

"It is difficult to estimate the real number of people who have contracted brucellosis," he said. "We'll have more results in the next two weeks, after the fast diagnosis equipment is dispatched to villages where even a single case was reported."

According to Britain's Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the disease is caused by infection with the bacterium Brucella abortus. In cattle, brucellosis causes abortion or premature calving of recently infected animals.

In people, brucellosis can cause flu-like symptoms, such as fever, sweats, headaches and back pains but can also lead to infections of the central nervous system. (Reporting by Maja Zuvela; Editing by David Fogarty)