Prevalence of bovine tuberculosis at the SODEPA Douala abattoir, Cameroon (1995 – 2003)

Abstract

This paper reviews tuberculosis and other pathological cases of slaughtered cattle recorded in “SODEPA” (Société de Développement et d'Exploitations des Productions Animales) Douala abattoir from April 1995 – May 2003 to determine the status of Bovine tuberculosis and other pathological conditions in Zebu cattle. Out of a total of 385,784 (3782.20 ± 425.02) zebu cattle slaughtered during this period, 3,893 (20.17 ± 25.35) pathological lesions were recorded with 81.53 % (3174; 32.72 ± 30.30) of them being due to tuberculosis. Prevalence rates of 1.01% for all the cases put together, 0.82% for tuberculosis alone and 0.19% for the non-tuberculosis cases were obtained for the 8-year study period. The other 18.47% (719; 7.90 ± 5.80) of non-tuberculosis cases were made up of liver (76.77%), non-tuberculosis lung (10.29%), cysticercosis (5.98%), enlarged kidney (2.50%), traumatic (2.22%) and pericardiac (2.22%) lesions. Bovine tuberculosis lesions were generally 3 – 5 times more prevalent (P< 0.05) than the other lesions combined. Although the rates of occurrence of the pathological cases were highest in April and September of 1997 and 1998, there was no significant association between cases and season. The paper therefore confirms that bovine tuberculosis is endemic in Cameroon and suggests that systematic knowledge on the biodiversity of the causative agents, epidemiology and control of the disease as well as the interrelationship between animal and human tuberculosis should be updated.

Keywords: Zebu cattle, pathological lesions, tuberculosis, prevalence, abattoir, Douala- Cameroon

Cameroon Journal of Experimental Biology Vol. 1(2) 2005: 116-120