Blood sampling
From rodent captured, 1 to 2 ml of blood was aseptically collected from
the heart puncture or plexus by using sterile syringes and needles. In
cattle, which were randomly sampled from different herds, 4 to 10 ml of
blood was aseptically collected from the jugular using sterile syringes
and needles after proper manual animal restraint. In humans, the study
involved individuals with febrile illness who were visiting Teule
Hospital and Ubwari Health Center. A 2 to 4-ml blood sample was
aseptically collected from each study subject by medical personnel using
sterile syringes (Mgode et al., 2019). Socio-demographic
information of study participants, including sex, occupation, location,
and age was recorded.
The samples were immediately transferred into plain vacutainer tubes and
allowed to clot for serum separation at room temperature for at least 30
minutes. The samples were centrifuged for 10 minutes at 3000 rpm to
increase the serum volume. The harvested sera were subsequently
transferred into well-labeled Eppendorf tubes and then stored at -20ᵒC
until subjected to MAT. (Mgode et al ., 2019).