Abstract
BackgroundIn Ethiopia, the distribution of bovine tuberculosis (BTB) has long been known and documented as a major problem of animal health. However, the burden of circulating M. bovis strains is poorly understood in the country. Therefore; this study aimed to identify and characterize the mycobacterial isolates responsible for BTB in Northwest Ethiopia.MethodsA cross-sectional study was conducted on tuberculous lesions that had been collected from slaughtered cattle between September 2018 to June 2019. Collected lesions were cultured and tested for tuberculous bacilli. The MPT64 assay and Genotype line probe assay (LPA) were used for identification of mycobacterial isolates, and region of deletion 4 (RD4) typing and spoligotyping were used to characterize the M. bovis strains.ResultsOf the total 1458 examined slaughtered cattle, only 62 (4.3, 95%CI; 0.0328–0.0542) had tuberculous lesions. The highest number of gross tuberculous lesions were observed from the lymph nodes of the thoracic cavity; at the mediastinal (40.3%, 25/62) and bronchial (22.6%, 14/62) lymph nodes. Of the 62 collected tuberculous lesions; 18 (29.0%) were culture positive for mycobacterium isolates, and only five isolates were confirmed for M. tuberculosis complex (MTBc) by the MPT64 assay and LPA. All the five MTBc isolates were positive for RD4 typing of M. bovis with a PCR product size of 446 bp, and no isolate was noticed to have M. tuberculosis. The detected M. bovis strains displayed five spoligotypes; with the common SB1176 and SB0133 M. bovis strains, although the two spoligotypes had not been previously reported.ConclusionThe present study shows that BTB in North Gondar, Ethiopia, is caused by M. bovis strains SB1176 and SB0033, with low frequency. Thus, the finding highlights the importance of continuous surveillance for mycobacterial strains in cattle populations.
Highlights
Bovine tuberculosis (BTB), caused by Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis), is an infectious, chronic disease of cattle, which are known to be the primary hosts for this organism [1], the disease has been reported in different mammalian hosts, including
In the overall statistical analysis, suspected tuberculous lesions were most likely to be observed in cattle age category of 5–8 years old (OR = 4.23; 95%CI (1.783–10.110); p = 0.001), and in age greater than 8 years old (OR = 5.21; 95%CI (2.027–13.379); p = 0.001)
Likewise, suspected tuberculous lesions were significantly higher in medium body conditioned cattle (OR = 4.42; 95%CI (1.748–11.179); p = 0.002), Table 1
Summary
Bovine tuberculosis (BTB), caused by Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis), is an infectious, chronic disease of cattle, which are known to be the primary hosts for this organism [1], the disease has been reported in different mammalian hosts, includingEjo et al BMC Microbiol (2021) 21:286 humans [2]. Various studies have described the importance of the slaughterhouse BTB surveillance in endemic situations; in countries with a low prevalence of BTB, between 5 and 15% of BTB infected herds were detected through the slaughterhouse surveillance [18,19,20,21]. These diagnostic tools cannot distinguish among members of the mycobacterial species, including M. bovis. ; this study aimed to identify and characterize the mycobacterial isolates responsible for BTB in Northwest Ethiopia
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