Zoonotic Tuberculosis

- Dr Jan H du Preez

Bovine tuberculosis is a direct anthropozoonosis caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis. It occurs mainly in cattle, but can also infect game animals, such as buffalo, eland and bushbuck, carnivores, such as lion, hyena, leopard and cheetah, and other animals such as baboons and warthogs. As tuberculosis is mutually transmissible between people and animals, it is also known as an amphizoonosis.

More than 90% of the cases of tuberculosis in people are caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, while M. bovis is responsible for less than 2% of human tuberculosis cases.

The occurrence of M. bovis has been greatly reduced by decades of disease control in cattle, and by the routine pasteurisation of cow’s milk. However, people with M. tuberculosis can also transmit the illness to other animals.

Millions of new human tuberculosis cases occur each year, and the disease is one of the biggest infectious disease killers in humans worldwide. Tuberculosis is also one of the top 10 causes of death around the world.