Background:

Brucellosis produces losses in livestock raising in the Americas. This region reports prevalence variations associated with the implementation of control programs, thus requiring an analysis that permits the combination of results to reach conclusions, which may be conducted through meta-analysis.

Aim.

To estimate the combined prevalence of Brucellosis in Cattle and Buffaloes in Central America and the Caribbean, and South America in the 2010-2021 period, and to analyze the different time performances in all the regions and the species.

Materials and methods:

Several papers published in electronic databases, such as PubMed / PubMed Central, Science Direct, Scielo, Ebsco, and Google Scholar were selected. Original papers and postgraduate theses available were included, provided they offered information about cattle and buffaloes, using the serological techniques recommended by the World Animal Health Organization, and which provided the sample size and the number of positives. A meta-analysis was done to estimate the combined prevalence of the disease, and the effect on the subgroups was evaluated by meta-regression.

Results:

Overall, 65 that met the selection criteria were included, 56 related to cattle, and 11 to buffaloes. The combined prevalence was 3.0%; differences between cattle (2.7%) and buffaloes (5.2%) were observed. The differences between the periods studied accounted for 4.3% (2011-2016) and 2.0% (2017-2021), respectively.

Conclusions:

The combined prevalence of the disease was 3.0%, which was higher in buffaloes, which dropped in the last five years. No differences were observed between the two regions studied.