The last outbreak of bovine tuberculosis in cattle in the Czech Republic in 1995 was caused by Mycobacterium bovis subspecies caprae

Abstract

The last outbreak of bovine tuberculosis in cattle in the CzechRepublic was detected in 1995. Signs of diarrhoea, weight loss and occasional coughing appeared in one 14-year-old cow after giving birth for the thirteenth time. Two months after these symptoms had been observed, it had to be slaughtered and numerous tuberculous lesions were found in its lung tissue, including the pleura. Within three months after the confirmation of the infection and consecutive intra-vitam and post-mortem diagnostics, all 28 remaining head of cattle from the herd (nine cows, seven bulls, six heifers and six calves) and five pigs were slaughtered. Patho-anatomical lesions were detected in all animals indicative of tuberculosis, from which Mycobacterium bovis was cultured and identified on the basis of biochemical tests and virulence test in a guinea-pig. The culture of 33 samples of other biological material than tissues (milk and urine of cows, feeding water, scrapings from the shed, fodder and others) resulted in M. bovis being detected in three samples (scrapings from shed walls). By the spoligotyping method M. bovis subsp. caprae was found in six selected isolates originating from two cows, two heifers and two bulls. It may therefore be assumed that there was one source of infection in the herd, which was the first infected old cow. In comparison with 3 176 spoligotypes in the existing database RIVM (National Institute of Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands) and literary data it was found that this spoligotype was also found in Sweden, Belgium, Great Britain, Spain, Poland, Germany and the CzechRepublic. It was impossible to determine the source of M. bovis subsp. caprae of the first infected cow on the basis of results from database and from anamnestic data. Green fodder coming from the farmer’s pastures near a forest could be considered as a possible source of M. bovis from wild ruminants like red deer (Cervus elaphus), which was found infected with bovine tuberculosis in another district of the CzechRepublic in 1991.