Prevalence of bovine tuberculosis in zoo animals in Pakistan

ABSTRACT

The study was carried out in zoo animals at Islamabad Zoo, Pakistan to know the prevalence of bovine tuberculosis. An overall prevalence of 3.3% was recorded in zoo animals with 3.6% in Bovidae, 3.2% in Cervidae and 0% in Equidae families. The positive animals included spotted deer [1/3; 95% CI = 0.84, 90.57], Chinkara gazella [1/5; 95% CI = 0.51, 71.64] and Blackbuck gazelle [1/30; 95% CI = 0.08, 17.22], while the negative animals were barking deer [0/4], hog deer [0/24], grey gorals [0/2], urial [0/9], mouflon [0/4], nilgai [0/5] and zebra [0/4]. The results revealed significant association of live weight and number of calving with the positive tuberculin test, with 32% higher chances for females to show a positive test. Results also showed that odds of a positive test were 1.19 times higher when animal number was less than 10. The results of haematological parameters showed significant differences in total erythrocyte counts, hemoglobin, total leukocyte counts, eosinophil and basophil percentages between positive and negative animals