African Journal of
Microbiology Research

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Microbiol. Res.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1996-0808
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJMR
  • Start Year: 2007
  • Published Articles: 5211

Full Length Research Paper

Isolation and molecular characterization of non tuberculosis mycobacteria from skin positive reactors and pathological lesions of cattle at Bako, Western Ethiopia

Temesgen Ayana1, Ketema Tafess2*, Gezahegne Mamo3, Tesfaye Sisay Tessema3and Gobena Ameni4
1Department of Veterinary Laboratory Technology, Ambo University, P. O. Box 19, Ambo, Ethiopia. 2Department of Biomedical Science, School of Health, Adama Science and Technology University, P. O. Box 04, Asella, Ethiopia. 3School of Veterinary Medicine, Addis Ababa University, P. O. Box 34, Debre Zeit, Ethiopia. 4Aklilu Lemma Institute of Pathobiology, Addis Ababa University, P. O. Box 1176, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 26 April 2013
  •  Published: 14 May 2013

Abstract

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 858 cattle (371 recruited from Bako Agricultural Research Center, BARC and 487 from Bako municipal abattoir) from October 2009 to April 2010 to isolate and characterize Mycobacterial species from Skin positive reactors and pathological lesion positive cattle. To this effect, comparative intradermal tuberculin (CIDT) test, post mortem examination, bacteriological culturing, and genus typing using multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) were applied. On the basis of CIDT, prevalence of positive reactors was 1.3% (95% CI: 0.15; 2.45) at the cut-off point of ≥4 mm following the recommendation of the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and 9.0% (95% CI: 6.0; 12.0) following the recently suggested cut-off of >2 mm. Apart from sex (P=0.047), there was no association between host related risk factors and positive reactors upon univariate analysis. However, animals in the age category of 2 to 5 years, those with medium body condition score and cattle born on farm were at high relative risk of infection than the other categories. Lesion positivity in slaughtered cattle was 9.3% (95% CI: 6.3; 11.8). Lesions were more frequent and severe in the mesenteric (60.9%), retropharyngeal (17.4%), and bronchial (17.4%) lymph nodes of slaughtered cattle. Culture positivity in suspicious tissues was 32.6% (29/89) out of which 69% (20 of 29) was confirmed to be acid-fast bacilli (AFB) on Ziehl Neelsen staining. Furthercharacterisation of these isolates using genus typing (multiplex polymerase chain reaction) revealed that all of the isolates were members of the non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). The isolation of NTM from tubercle lesions underlines their roles in causing lesions, which are similar with lesions caused by Mycobacterium bovis. Therefore, further investigations to identify the specific species, the source of infections, transmission route and the pathogencity of NTM in specific host is recommended.

 

Key words: Bovine tuberculosis, non-tuberculous mycobacteria, grazing cattle, genus typing, Ethiopia.

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This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

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