What is the goal of the BRUCE project?

Brucellosis is caused by a bacteria, which can be passed from sheep, goats, cattle, and camels to people. It can cause fever, painful joints, and problems with pregnancy in both people and animals. In Israel, brucellosis is a common cause of illness among people and animals in Bedouin communities.

For many years, public health researchers have tried to reduce brucellosis cases by studying the biology of how it is spread, and using testing and culling of animals to reduce spread to people. These types of studies are very important, but they also miss the “big picture:” if people do not have good relationships with the government, they will not agree to have their animals vaccinated or tested, and it is impossible to control the disease. For Bedouin communities in Israel, village demolition and urbanization are also important because they change how people keep animals.

The goal of the BRUCE project is to work closely with recognized and unrecognized Bedouin communities to study how distrust of government ministries and movement from villages to towns (whether by choice or because of village demolition) allow brucellosis to still be common in this area.

Where will the BRUCE project be conducted?

The BRUCE project will be conducted in 11 communities, including recognized, unrecognized, and semi-recognized villages and towns. They are listed below

Study communities
  • Rahat
  • Hura
  • Shaqib Al-Salam
  • Umm Batin
  • Al Sayyid
  • Al Atrash
  • Qasr Al-Sir
  • Abu Tlul
  • Tal Arad
  • Al-Furaa
  • Wadi al-Na’am

How will the BRUCE project be conducted?

The BRUCE project will be conducted carefully and slowly, over a 5 year period from 2024-2029. Each year is summarized below.

Year 1: 2024-2025

In Year 1, we will focus on building trust and getting to know the community. We will recruit a community advisory group, with one member from each community. This advisory group will help us to identify any problems with our plans for the BRUCE project, point out anything that could be added that would benefit their community, and answer questions that members of their community might have.

In Year 1 we will also hold interviews and group discussions, which will help us understand more deeply how animals are kept, how they are important, how this is different in villages compared with towns, and experiences people have had with government ministries.

Year 2: 2025-2026

In Year 2 we will return to communities in the springtime when animals are giving birth, to ask more questions about how people care for their animals. We will also ask for permission to collect samples from animals, the environment, and milk and cheese to test for brucellosis. Anyone who doesn’t want to allow testing can say no, and we will take our time to explain what the test is for, and whether any positive results need to be reported.

At the same time, we will be working with doctors at Soroka University Medical Center to identify people who might have brucellosis. If these people are from Bedouin villages, we will ask whether it is okay to do an additional test on their blood samples, which will help us to learn more about where they might have gotten brucellosis. People will only be tested at Soroka University Medical Center: no sampling of people will be done when we visit communities.

Year 3: 2026-2027

In Year 3, we will continue testing people, animals, environments, and food for brucellosis.

We will also recruit a “community model-building team:” this is a team of youth or young adults from Bedouin communities who like math and science, and will partner with our team to conduct analyses. They will receive training in mathematical modeling, recognition of their work, and compensation for their time.

In Year 3 we will also host a community peer-review workshop: this means we will come to the community to present the findings of our project so far. We will also get community members’ permission to publish the results that we have found, and community members can request changes to how results are presented.

Year 4: 2027-2028

Year 4 will be much like Year 3. This will be our final year of testing for people, animals, and environments. We will also continue working with the community model-building team

Year 5: 2028-2029

The final year of long projects usually involve wrapping up data collection and writing reports.

We host a final community peer-review workshop to share our final results with the community, and give community members and opportunity to request changes in how results are presented. We will also discuss solutions to the current problem of brucellosis in the Bedouin community, and the next steps that community members would like to see.

After this, we will host a policy round-table with members of the Ministry of Health, Ministry of Agriculture, local councils, and other similar government ministries to present our results and the recommendations that were made by community members.