Brucellosis in a buffalo

On Tuesday we got back to the veterinary side of our work. We were off at first light to look for a herd of Cape Buffalo as we are studying brucellosis in this species and in the park in general. It did not take us long to find an adult cow with an enormous swelling low down on her left from leg. Such swellings are one of the cardinal signs of this disease in cattle, bison and buffalo. We soon had a dart in her and found that she did indeed have severe problems.

The swelling was full of pus, and it was no wonder that she was lame. When we got back to the lab we ran a test on the serum sample we had taken, and yes, we confirmed brucellosis.