Mycobacterium bovis infection in goats from the Northeast region of Brazil

• Published in: Brazilian journal of microbiology Vol. 42; no. 4; pp. 1437 - 1439
• Main Authors: Higino, Severino Silvano Dos Santos, Pinheiro, Sônia Regina, de Souza, Gisele Oliveira, Dib, Cristina Corsi, do Rosário, Tatiana Reis, Melville, Priscilla Anne, Alves, Clebert José, de Azevedo, Sérgio Santos
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Sociedade Brasileira de Microbiologia 01-10-2011
• Subjects: Veterinarian Microbiology
• ISSN: 1517-8382; 1678-4405
• DOI: 10.1590/S1517-838220110004000028

A total of 8,058 male and female mixed-breed goats and 1–4 years of age were slaughtered over a period of 7 months at the public slaughterhouse of Patos city, Paraíba state, in the Northeast region of Brazil; 822 animals were inspected for gross lesions of tuberculosis, and 12 (1.46%) had lesions suggestive of tuberculosis in the mammary gland, lungs, liver and mediastinal, mesenteric, submandibular, parotid and prescapular lymph nodes. Presence of granulomatous lesions was confirmed in the submandibular lymph node of one (8.3%) goat at the histopathological examination and at the mycobacterium culture the same sample was confirmed positive. Isolate was confirmed as belonging to the
M. tuberculosis
complex by PCR restriction enzyme analysis (PRA). Spoligotyping identified the isolate into spoligotype SB0295 on the
M. bovis
Spoligotype Database website (
www.mbovis.org
), and it was classified as
M. bovis
. The occurrence of
M. bovis
in goats in this study suggests that this species may be a potential source of infection for humans and should be regarded as a possible problem in the advancement of control and eradication program for bovine tuberculosis in Brazil.