A bibliometric analysis of brucellosis research (1991–2022): Research trends and hotspots

Brucellosis is an important, highly contagious, bacterial zoonotic disease that has economic and public health implications. It is caused by various Brucella species with a wide host range including livestock, wildlife, other terrestrial animals, and humans. Despite the availability of a huge number of publications on brucellosis, no comprehensive bibliometric analysis discussing research trends has been published. Bibliometric studies are important tools to highlight research trends and outputs of the relevant discipline. The current study aimed to highlight the research trends of published brucellosis data (9,022 articles published 1991–2022) from the Web of Science Core Collection database. The relevant data were obtained for the keywords “Brucella”, “brucellae”, and “brucellosis” and highlight the most research-active countries, institutions, authors, publications, journals, and disciplines. The articles focusing on brucellosis were predominantly published in journals categorized under veterinary sciences, followed by microbiology and infectious diseases. The United States emerged as the leading contributor to brucellosis research articles. The University of Navarra, Spain, and the French National Institute for Agricultural Research (INRA) stood out as the most prolific institutions in this field. The word cluster analysis indicated emerging brucellosis research areas including the development of diagnostic assays, host range (humans, cattle, small ruminants, rodents), and Brucella species (B. abortus, B. melitensis, B. suis and B. ovis). This review indicates the research landscape and future hotspots in brucellosis research that will promote sharing of knowledge and initiate collaborative research under the umbrella of “One Health”.