Bovine Tuberculosis in Endemic India: Epidemiology and the Evolving Role of Skin Testing in Disease Detection
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.48165/ijvsbt.22.2.01Keywords:
Bovine tuberculosis, Endemicity, Intradermal test, M. bovis, Zoonosis.Abstract
Mycobacterium bovis conferring Tuberculosis in bovines, a member of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtbc) complex, is a persistent major threat to bovines with significant zoonotic propositions. Tuberculosis in milch animals is a potential hazard to the Indian dairy industry as the disease consequents in mortality, morbidity and production decline leading to significant economic down-curves. Hence, the continuous monitoring is the option of choice to combat the situation including surveillance and disease control tests, viz., cell-mediated immune (CMI) dependent assays (Tuberculin skin tests (TST): single intradermal test (SID) or comparative/double intradermal test (DIT)). But in contrast, estimation of true burden of the disease still remains unknown due to the lack of proper routine surveillance data. This review projects along with different aspects of bovine TB, summary of various studies performed in different parts of India covering 20 states and union territories where skin testing of the animals have been preferred as the major test inferring a view of the prevalence-picture of these areas. Furthermore, implementation of various control programs at both national and international level with acceleration in research velocity could lead in succeeding the present challenges.Downloads
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