Bovine tuberculosis survey based on meat inspection and microscopic examination in central city abattoir in Ismailia, Egypt and its hazards to the abattoir workers

This article aimed to investigate bovine tuberculosis in cattle and buffalo slaughtered in Ismailia city abattoir, Egypt and examining abattoir workers for tuberculosis infection. Carcasses were examined for tuberculosis-like lesions for one year starting from March 21st 2009. Tuberculosis-like lesions were examined by Ziehl-Neelsen staining and histopathological techniques. Results revealed that of 13,866 slaughtered bovine, tuberculosis-like lesions were detected in 86 (0.6%) of carcasses including 2 (2.3%) generalized and 84 (97.7%) localized lesions. Microscopic examination for Acid-Fast Bacilli (AFB) and histopathological examination showed that 38 (0.3%) carcasses and 50 (43.9%) of tuberculosis-like lesions were confirmed to be tuberculosis. Lesions in the lung and its associated lymph nodes were the most predominant (64.8%). The tuberculosis-like lesions were grossly detected to be higher among cattle (0.7%) than buffalo (0.5%). There were significant differences between male and female in the detection rate of tuberculosis-like lesions (P 0.0007), however, seasonal effects were not significant. Tuberculin Intradermal testing of the abattoir workers revealed 12.5% of them were reactors whereas all were negative to AFB by microscopic examination of their sputum smears stained by Ziehl-Neelsen. In conclusion, the detection of bovine tuberculosis among the slaughtered bovine indicated its spread among the household animal husbandry in Ismailia, Egypt that should be covered by national control programs to prevent zoonotic potentials of bovine tuberculosis.