To study the prevalence of brucellosis in sheep and goats, a total of 181 and 164 serum samples were collected from apparently healthy sheep and goats respectively of different age and sex from four districts of Maharashtra. All the samples were screened for brucella antibodies by employing RBPT test. An overall prevalence of 7.32% and 17.68% was observed in goats and sheep respectively. District wise prevalence indicated 15.00 % prevalence of brucellosis in goats in Akola district followed by Sangli (7.50%), Nagpur (5.00%) and Nashik (2.30%) and 20.00% prevalence of brucellosis in sheep in Nashik district followed by Nagpur (19.50%), Akola (18.33%) and Sangli (12.50%).Age wise prevalence indicated 21.43% prevalence in sheep between 2-3yrs and10.17% in goats above 3 yrs of age. Sex wise seroprevalence indicated prevalence of 25.00% and 24.00% in male sheep and goats respectively and 17.16% and 4.32% in female sheep and goats respectively. From the present study it is concluded that brucellosis is endemic in India. Further studies are required to reveal the complete scenario of sero prevalence of the brucellosis in Maharashtra.

Keyword: Brucellosis; Prevalence; Sheep and Goats;