Brucella

Encyclopedia : B : BR : BRU : Brucella

Brucella is a genus of Gram-negative bacteria. They are small (0.5-0.7 × 0.6-1.5 µm), non-motile, encapsulated coccobacilli. Slow-growing, Brucella species require complex media for isolation.

A true zoonotic-disease (i.e. no human-to-human transmission has been identified), specification is currently assigned via a ratio of two antigenic determinants. Transmission is via ingestion of infected food, direct contact with an infected animal, or inhalation of aerosols. Infectious exposure is between 10 - 100 organisms. Brucella infections primarily occur via occupational exposure (i.e. exposure to cattle, sheep, pigs), but some recent transmissions has been via raw bovine milk consumption.

References

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.