Abstract
Dromedary camels are the main sources of milk, meat and income for the Ethiopian pastoralists as they withstand the harsh environments of the regions of the country. Tuberculosis (TB) affects dromedary camels causing morbidity and mortality in these animals. Hence, early diagnosis and identification of infected camels play a significant role in reducing the transmission of TB in camels. This study was conducted on 168 camels between October 2014 and July 2015 to evaluate the performance of single intra-dermal comparative cervical tuberculin (SICCT) to diagnose TB in camels. Gross pathology was used as a gold standard to define disease status of each camel. The result showed that at the cutoff value of ≥ 3 mm SICCT had optimum performance with sensitivity and specificity of 60.7 and 85%, respectively. Moreover, at a cutoff ≥ 3 mm, the receiver operating characteristics (ROC) revealed area under the ROC curve was 0.729 (0.615–0.842) which is statistically significant (p = 0.000). Thus, the result of the present study could suggest the use of ≥ 3 mm cutoff value for the diagnosis of TB in dromedary camels in Ethiopia.
Highlights
This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Camelids Guest Editor: Bernard FayeThe one-humped camel, dromedary (Camelus dromedarius), is one of the world’s hardiest domesticated animals; a vital source of transport, meat, milk, and income for pastoralists in the Sahel, East Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia
Of the 168 camels considered to assess the performance of the Single intra-dermal comparative cervical tuberculin (SICCT) at different cutoff points against gross pathology as a gold standard, positive tuberculin reactor rate with 95% confidence interval of [11.9% (11.6–12.23%)], [61.3% (60.9– 61.8%)], [60.1% (59.6–60.6%)], [22.6% (22.2–23.02%)], and [22.6% (22.2–23.02%)] for the cutoff points ≥ 3.5, ≥ 1.5, ≥ 2.0, ≥ 2.5, and ≥ 3 mm, respectively
The interpretation of the SICCT at different cutoff points revealed that the performance of SICCT at cutoff values ≥ 2.5, ≥ 3, and ≥ 3.5 mm were found to be better informative in discriminating diseased cases than the other cutoff values
Summary
This article belongs to the Topical Collection: Camelids Guest Editor: Bernard FayeThe one-humped camel, dromedary (Camelus dromedarius), is one of the world’s hardiest domesticated animals; a vital source of transport, meat, milk, and income for pastoralists in the Sahel, East Africa, the Middle East, and South Asia. Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious, chronic, and granulomatous disease caused by mycobacterial species belonging to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) (Thoen 2009). It affects many vertebrate animals and manifests in the lungs and lymph nodes including other organs (Thoen 2009; WHO 2015). Tuberculosis affects old world camelids (OWC) including Dromedaries and Bactrian camels (Mustafa 2013; Rhodes et al 2015). Few studies have been conducted on the epidemiology of tuberculosis in camels (Beye et al 2014; Trop Anim Health Prod (2018) 50:1665–1670
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