Bovine tuberculosis and its public health significance/bovine tuberculosis and its public health significance: A review

Tuberculosis has been declared as global emergency by WHO as about 85 per cent of all tuberculosis cases occur in WHO region of South East Asia (34%), Africa (31%) and western pacific (20%). The disease is accountable for more deaths throughout the world than any other bacterial disease ever today and about 8 million new cases occur each year of which 3 million die. The most important causes of bovine TB in cattle is M. bovis which infects other domesticated and wild mammals. The zoonotic transmission of M. bovis is responsible for 10-15 per cent of new human TB cases in developing countries and about 1-2 per cent of the cases in developed countries and prior to pasteurization 25 per cent of all TB cases of children are due to bovine TB and the condition is aggravated in immunocompromised patients. Worldwide loss due to bovine TB is 3 billion US$ is due to loss of production (30%), trade barrier and long therapy (9 months) due to extrapulmonary form of disease. It is estimated that about 90 per cent of human population lives in countries where cattle and dairy animals receive partial or no protection against bovine tuberculosis. Bovine TB is endemic in India, the overall prevalence of bovine TB in animal is 7.3 per cent. Lack of National TB control policy, poor lab facility, wild life and domestic animal reservoir are the hindrance to achieve the goal of elimination of TB by 2025.