Occurrence of Bovine Tuberculosis in Cattle Slaughtered at Yirgalem Municipal Abattoir, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

A cross sectional study was conducted at Yirgalem municipal abattoir from November 2011 to March 2012 to estimate the prevalence of Bovine Tuberculosis (BTB) and to assess the associated risk factors based on detail post mortem and histopathological examinations. Accordingly, the randomly selected 402 slaughtered cattle were subjected to postmortem examination out of which 24 (6.0%) were found positive for tuberculous lesion. Of the 24 tissue specimens collected from the gross tuberculous lesion, 12.5% were positive by histopathological examination. The higher proportion of the gross TB lesion was recorded in mesenteric lymph nodes (79.2%, 19/24) followed by medistinal (12.5%, 3/24) and bronchial lymph nodes (8.3%, 2/24). Similarly, with histopathological examination, two-third of the TB lesions (66.7%) were detected in digestive tract while only one-third (33.3%) was recorded in the respiratory system. This indicated the occurrence of larger proportion of TB lesions in the digestive system than in the respiratory pathway. The multivariable logistic regression analysis of the risk factors also revealed higher occurrence of BTB among the cross breed (OR = 5.9, 95%CI = 1.6, 22.1) and animals with poor body condition score (OR = 5.6, 95%CI = 1.6, 19.9) when compared with local and animals with good body condition score. In conclusion, this study revealed the status of BTB in the study area. Further study is required to trace back the disease to the origin of the animals so that the overall epidemiological picture and the route of the disease can be understood.