Tuberculosis also affects Animals.

6 months ago

Tuberculosis is associated with an embarrassing type of cough when it happens to humans, alongside other symptoms that it shows. When tuberculosis happens to a person others are advised not to use certain materials with the affected person, this is to avoid a continuous spread of the infection.

Tuberculosis comes from the nodules, called ''tubercles'', which form in the lymph nodes, and other affected tissues of the animal infected.
But what if I told you that animals could also have tuberculosis? Are the symptoms the same with humans, and do they take the same shape and form? We will find out shortly.

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It was in the 1500s that Cattle were introduced to North America, by Spanish explorers, who arrived through the Caribbean and Mexico. About a hundred years later, cattle from Northern Europe and Britain were being imported to the east coast of North America. About 25-50% of the cattle that went into the country were already infected with tuberculosis. The majority of human immigrants from Europe already had an active case of tuberculosis or had been previously infected which made them potential carriers too.

However, since the peak of the 1800s in the United States, tuberculosis gradually started to decline on a yearly basis. There are several factors that contributed to this factor.
Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a chronic bacterial animal disease that is caused by members of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. It is a major infectious disease present amongst cattle, and other domesticated animals, alongside wildlife populations. It creates a general state of illness, weight loss, pneumonia, and death eventually.

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Tuberculosis affects the respiratory system basically, but the bacteria can spread all through the body, disseminating through the lymph system and blood vessels.
Bovine tuberculosis is found all around the world, but there are countries that have never detected tuberculosis. It is a zoonotic disease in countries that don't have control programs for cattle and that don't have extensive milk pasteurization. Although the disease is usually regarded as a chronic one, it usually assumes an acute, rapidly progressive course.

Genus mycobacterium is made up of over 170 species, and most of them are environmental organisms. The usual route of TB infection is through the inhalation of infected droplets, but the bacteria could also be ingested into the system, especially through contaminated milk, food, or water. Transmission could also be done through infective bites in badgers.

The course of the disease is a slow one, which will usually take months or even years before it gets to the fatal stage. An infected animal could also shed the bacteria within the herd before clinical signs begin to show, the disease is spread more through the movement of infected domestic animals.

Clinical signs of tuberculosis in an animal are; diarrhea, weakness, fluctuating fever, diarrhea, enlarged prominent lymph nodes, and low-grade pneumonia.
Cattle readers are advised to get the ''bovine tuberculosis free'' accreditation as it is known that cattle are known as a strong reservoir for bovine tuberculosis in humans.

There are two types of tests used to detect tuberculosis bacteria in humans; the TB skin test (TST), and the TB blood test. In the case of a positive skin or blood test, there is an indication of a person being affected with TB bacteria.
Latent TB infection is when a person has been exposed to TB but is not experiencing any form of illness, while active TB on the other hand, means the person has been exposed to the bacteria and is experiencing TB disease.

There is no effective vaccine currently for the prevention of TB in animals and there is still no effective medication for the treatment of bovine tuberculosis in wild deer. It is with a combination of wildlife disease surveys and deer management strategies, that the disease is eliminated in wild beer.

The major approach to the control of tuberculosis in animal production is called ''Test-and-cull abattoir surveillance''. This technique is dependent on scheduled routine testing, after this, those that react positively to the test will get slaughtered.