Preventing Brucellosis

To help reduce your chances of getting brucellosis, take the following steps:

• Avoid eating or drinking unpasteurized milk and dairy foods. If you are unsure if a dairy product is pasteurized, don’t eat it.
• Wear rubber gloves and goggles, and securely cover open wounds when handling domesticated animals including their secretions, excretions, or carcasses.
• Wear a protective mask when dealing with brucellosis cultures in the laboratory.
• Have cattle and bison that live in areas heavily infected with brucellosis vaccinated by an accredited veterinarian or government health official (the vaccine contains a live virus and is dangerous to humans). For best results, calves should be vaccinated when they are 4-6 months old. There is no brucellosis vaccine for humans as of yet.