Objective To understand the awareness of brucellosis related knowledge and the prevalence of risk behaviors in farmers and herdsmen in Zuoyun county of Shanxi province, and provide reference for public health education about brucellosis prevention and control.

Methods Farmers and herdsmen were selected in Zuoyun through stratified two-staged sampling, A self-designed questionnaire was used to collect the information about their awareness of brucellosis related knowledge, prevalence of risk behavior and self-protection. The differences in the knowledge awareness and risk behavior prevalence between farmers or herdsmen who had suffered from brucellosis and those who had never suffered from brucellosis were analyzed with χ² test.

Results Among the 491 subjects surveyed, 70.47% knew that brucellosis will lead to muscle pain, 41.96% knew the fever symptom of brucellosis, 12.63% had no knowledge about the common symptoms of brucellosis. 82.06% believed the delivery of livestock might lead to the infection with Brucella, 56.08% thought slaughtering livestock might lead to the infection, 41.65% believed eating undercooked beef and mutton might lead to the infection. When delivering the lambs, 77.17% of the subjects surveyed never wore masks, 64.84% never wore protective gloves; when dealing with livestock apoblema, 81.99% never wore masks, 72.04% never wore protective gloves. Although the local health department have conducted the health education of brucellosis knowledge, but 41.55% of the subjects surveyed answered receiving no health education about brucellosis. The differences in the correct answer rate among farmers and herdsmen with different education background were significant (χ²＝16.360, P＜0.05); the rate of drinking raw milk was 56.25% in those who had suffered from brucellosis and 43.75% in those who had never suffered from brucellosis, the difference were significant (χ²＝7.914, P＜0.05).

Conclusion This survey indicated the local farmers and herdsmen had low awareness of brucellosis related knowledge, which was much lower than the expected, they usually took no protection measures in contacting livestock. It is necessary to strengthen the health education about brucellosis prevention and control in local farmers and herdsmen to improve their self-protection and reduce the prevalence of brucellosis.