an infectious disease of cattle, goats, dogs, and pigs, caused by bacteria of the genus Brucella and transmittable to humans (e.g. by drinking contaminated milk): symptoms include fever, chills, and severe headache
Pathology. any of a group of diseases, usually intermittent or remittent, characterized by attacks of chills, fever, and sweating: formerly supposed to be due to swamp exhalations but now known to be caused by a parasitic protozoan, which is transferred to the human bloodstream by a mosquito of the genus Anopheles and which occupies and destroys red blood cells.