A follow-up on bovine tuberculosis programmes in Latin American and Caribbean countries

KANTOR IN DE; RITACCO V

Dublin, Ireland

Conferencia; 4th International Conference on Mycobacterium bovis; 2005

Centre for Veterinary Epidemiology and Risk Analysis (CVERA), University College Dublin

Of the approximately 374 million head of cattle bred in Latin America and the Caribbean, 70% are held in areas with rates of Mycobacterium bovis cattle infection higher than 1%. The remaining 30% are held in countries where infection affects less than 1% of cattle, including 62 million in countries where bovine tuberculosis infection is virtually null. Measures for controlling bovine tuberculosis are partially or extensively applied in most of the countries. These measures are based on test and slaughter, notification, post-mortem inspection and surveillance in slaughterhouses. A coordinated production, standardization and quality control of PPDs is urgently required for use in control and eradication campaigns in order to assure reliability of reagents and comparability of data on tuberculin testing within the Region. On the basis of information produced in Argentina, M. bovis is estimated to cause 2% of all human cases of tuberculosis in the Region. Slaughterhouse and dairy farms workers are the most frequent targets and the infection occurs via the respiratory track. Various in vitro diagnostic assays for the diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis have been developed and/or assessed in the Region, and DNA fingerprinting was applied for a comprehensive understanding of the epidemiology of bovine tuberculosis at the local and regional level.