Epidemiological studies on tuberculosis in buffalo population in villages around Faisalabad.

Faisalabad is the third largest city of Pakistan with anapproximate population of 2.6 million.Most of the raw mil k supplied in the city f or consumption of the people comes from peri -urban areas of the city. Bovine tuberculosis (TB)is one of the most important zoonotic diseasestransmitted through milk. Disease hasalsoeconomic importancedue to decrease in milk production of affected animals. The present study was conducted to measure the prevalence and some associated factors ofbovineTB inbuffaloesin peri-urban areasof Faisalabad city .A total of 1052 buffaloes were selectedthrough clusterrandomsamplingconsidering every dairy herd as a cluster in the villages within 1 5kilometer radius fromClock Tower ofFaisalabad Cityfromyear2005 to 2008. Number of animals selected during theyears2005, 2006,2007 and2008 were263, 259,264 and 266respectively.The epidemiological data were collected onfactorslike age, sex, physical condition, milk yield and housingof the animalson pre-designed data capture forms . All the animals were tested for TB through single intra -dermal comparative tuberculin testSICTT). The prevalence of TB in buffaloes wasrecorded as2.47%.The temporal distribution over a period of years revealed thatthe disease is endemic in buffalo populationin peri-urban areas of Faisalabad city with prevalence of 2.2 6 to2.70%.Age, physical condition, milk yield and housing of the animals were found associated with the disease through chi -square testwhile sex of the animal did not show any association with the disease. The animals of 5 -8 years of age were at highes t risk of disease with prevalence of 4.04 to 5.04 %. No animal up to one year age was found positive.