Prevalence of Tuberculosis in Sheep and Goats in Punjab Pakistan.

1
Prevalence of Tuberculosis in Sheep and Goats in
Punjab Pakistan.
Imtiaz Ahmad 1, M. Tariq Javed 1, Monica Cagiola
2, Amer Munir 1 and Razia Kausar 3 1 Department
of Pathology, University of Agriculture,
Faisalabad, Pakistan. E-mail mtjaved_at_fsd.paknet.
com.pk 2 Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale
dellUmbria e delle Marche, Perugia, Italy. 3
Department of Anatomy, University of Agriculture,
Faisalabad.
ABSTRACT Bovine tuberculosis remains a
significant world wide concern for public health
officials, agricultural managers, veterinarians,
farmers and hunters. Therefore, it is imperative
to keep on monitoring the disease situation in
domestic and farm animals. This study was carried
out to assess the situation of tuberculosis in
sheep and goats kept at various livestock farms
in the Punjab, Pakistan. The single cervical
tuberculin test was used for recording prevalence
of disease. A total of 4729 sheep and 1455 goats
at 7 sheep and 4 goat farms were tested. The
prevalence varied significantly (P 0.000001
X2 42.63) between sheep farms with a prevalence
of 3.5 at farm 7, 1.11 at farm 2, while below
1 at farms 1 and 3-6. The total number of sheep
tested at farms 1 7 were, 1147, 270, 401, 1251,
760, 440 and 460, respectively. Sheep of four
different breeds were kept at these farms and
prevalence varied significantly (P 0.05 X2
9.24) among them with 1.38, 0.92, 0 and 0 in
Kajli, Thalli, Pak-Karakul and Kacchi breeds. The
prevalence of tuberculosis varied significantly
(P 0.03 X2 8.71) between goat farms with
prevalence of 3.41 at farm 1, 0.93 at farm 2,
3.8 at farm 3 and 2.5 at farm 4. The total
number of goats tested at these farms were 410,
535, 235 and 275, respectively. Goats of five
different breeds were kept at these farms and
prevalence varied significantly among breeds (P
0.05 X2 9.24) with a prevalence of 4.2 in
Beetal, 2.9 in Teddy, 1.2 in Pak-Angora and 0
in both Nachi and Dera Din Penah. The overall
prevalence of 2.4 and 0.91 was observed in
goats and sheep, respectively. To the best of our
knowledge this is the first report on prevalence
of tuberculosis in small ruminants from Pakistan
involving a larger sample size.
Introduction Pakistan has about 52.8 million
heads of goats (1). Goat rearing is the main
source of milk for the poor and its milk is
preferred over sheep milk. There are many reasons
why goat rearing can not develop into a farming
system, one is the prevalence of diseases.
However, tuberculosis status is not very well
known in small ruminants in many parts of the
country. Bovine tuberculosis is a world wide
disease and is of serious concern in developing
countries. Limited previous studies in Pakistan
were carried out and a 2 prevalence was found in
1986 in sheep (2). The prevalence of the disease
from other parts of the world is reported to be
3.7 in feral goats, 0.4 in farmed goats (3)
and 7 in South Canterbury Angora goats (4). Due
to the zoonotic importance of the disease and
scarcity of information in Pakistan, the need to
carry out an investigation to know the current
status of the disease at farm level was strongly
felt.
Materials and Methods Animals A total of 4 goat
farms and 7 sheep farms were included in the
study. In fact ,at three farms, both sheep and
goats are kept together and only at one farm
goats are kept separately. A total of 1455 goats
and 4729 sheep at these farms were tested. Farms
are located in different zones of the Punjab
Province. The goat breeds kept at these farms are
Teddy (682), Pak-Angora (430), Nachi (45), Dera
Din Penah (60) and Beetal (238). The sheep breeds
kept at these farms are Thalli (2158),
Pak-Karakul (860), Kacchi (51) and Kajli (1660).
Tuberculin skin test. The single cervical
intradermal skin test was performed using bovine
(50.000 I.U. /ml) PPD produced at a licensed
laboratory in Italy and results were read and
interpreted according to standard protocol (6) .
Statistical Analysis. The chi-square test was
applied to analyse the data by using EpiCalc 2000
version 1.02, a free-ware software.
Results An overall prevalence of 0.91 in sheep
and 2.4 in goats was recorded. The results with
reference to prevalence at farms and breeds are
presented in bar diagrams. Prevalence of
tuberculosis varied from 0.93 to 3.41 at goat
farms and 0 to 3.5 at sheep farms. Breed wise
prevalence varied from 0 to 4.2 in goat breeds,
while 0 to 1.38 in sheep breeds. The result s
showed that Beetal breed of goat (Plt0.05) and
Kajli (Plt0.005) breed of sheep had a
significantly higher prevalence.
X2 09.24 P 0.05
X2 08.71 P 0.03
X2 12.51 P 0.005
X2 42.63 P 0.000001
Conclusions Tuberculosis is a chronic infectious
disease and of great significance, as it causes
great economic losses through poor carcasses, low
quality hide and skin, decreased milk yield and
poor productivity. For its control, knowledge
about its prevalence is important. The aim of the
present study was to find out the prevalence of
tuberculosis in farm settings. We found a lower
prevalence of disease in small ruminants than
expected owing to the results obtained in large
ruminants, i.e., cattle and buffaloes (5).
However, the prevalence in goats was higher at
farms where other animal species including sheep,
cattle and buffaloes altogether were present at
two farms, 3.41 and 3.8 compared with the
farms were goats were kept with sheep (2.5 and
0.93 ). Similarly, in sheep, the prevalence was
higher when sheep were kept with goats, cattle
and buffalo altogether at one farm with 0.78,
1.11 and 3.5 prevalence, compared with 0.74 and
0.92 where sheep were kept with cattle, 0.39
where sheep were kept with goats and 0 where
sheep were kept with buffaloes. As far as
management practices are concerned, they were
more or less similar with regards grazing hours
and access of wild animals like dogs and wild.
However, the grazing area at most farms where
large animals are also kept is shared at
alternate intervals and sometimes simultaneously.
We can state on the basis of the present study
that Beetal and Teddy breed of goats are more
susceptible than other goat breeds and similarly,
nor can we state that the Kajli breed of sheep is
more susceptible to Mycobacteria than other
breeds. The reason being that the Beetal and
Teddy goat breeds were mostly kept at farms where
other large animals were also kept and the same
can be said for Kajli breed of sheep. However,
further studies are required before a final
conclusion can be made. At the same time it is
difficult to compare the results of prevalence
recorded in farm settings with previous reports
from a study of abatoirs in Pakistan in which
only 100 sheep and goats respectively were
examined and a 2 prevalence in sheep while 0
in goats was recorded (2).

• Acknowledgements
• This study was funded by the Pakistan Science
  Foundation, under project head P-AU/AGR (283)
  which is highly acknowledged.
• The PPDs was provided by the Istituto
  Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dellUmbria e delle
  Marche, Perugia, Italy as part of collaborative
  research and is highly acknowledged.

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