Prevalence and risk factors of bovine tuberculosis in Nili Ravi buffaloes in the Punjab, Pakistan

• Main Authors: A. Khan, I. A. Khan
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2010-02-01
• Series: Italian Journal of Animal Science
• Subjects: Bovine tuberculosis, Epidemiology, Buffalo, Prevalence, Tuberculin
• Online Access: http://www.aspajournal.it/index.php/ijas/article/view/1117

The present study was executed to determine the magnitude of bovine tuberculosis (BTB) in buffaloes in native type of husbandry practices and impact of certain factors in the prevalence of bovine tuberculosis in buffaloes in the Punjab, Pakistan. Three year cross sectional study was carried out on female population of Nili Ravi buffaloes (n = 2526) maintained at 10 Government Livestock Experimental Stations, and peri urban areas of the three major cites i.e., Lahore, Faisalabad and Okara. These animals were screened with comparative intradermal tuberculin test (CIDT) by using two types of tuberculins i.e., mammalian and avian. The reaction of tuberculins injected was interpreted after 72 hours post injection. The data were analyzed by Chi-square test and Pearson correlation. Relative risk and other associated factors were calculated to describe the association with prevalence of tuberculosis in buffaloes. The prevalence of bovine tuberculosis on the basis of CIDT was 12.72%. The BTB among different livestock farms varied significantly (P<0.001) from 8.52 to 19.04%. The results of epidemiological factors revealed a significantly (P<0.001) greater percentage of tuberculin reactors in >8 years old age, body weight >550 kg, 3-6 parity, pregnant animals, and animals with >7 liters milk yield. The husbandry factors which greatly influence the prevalence was poor feeding (RR=2.615), high fly density (RR= 1.3474), poor management (RR=1.315), contact with wildlife (RR=1.4507), poor farm conditions (RR=1.4708), quarantine measures (RR=1.1557) and poor sanitation of farm (RR= 1.3701).