Situation of bovine tuberculosis in Ecuador Situación de la tuberculosis bovina en el Ecuador

• Main Authors: Freddy Proaño-Pérez, Washington Benítez-Ortiz, Françoise Portaels, Leen Rigouts, Annick Linden
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English; Spanish; Portuguese
• Published: Pan American Health Organization 2011
• Subjects: Mycobacterium bovis; zoonosis; enfermedades de los bovinos; tuberculosis bovina; enfermedades transmisibles emergentes; Ecuador; zoonoses; cattle diseases; tuberculosis; bovine; communicable diseases; emerging; Medicine; R; Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doaj.org/article/071cf2256ef14c929c815095a15e70a5

Bovine tuberculosis (BTB) is a chronic and contagious disease that affects domestic animals, wildlife, and humans. Caused by Mycobacterium bovis, BTB causes major economic losses and poses a serious constraint to international livestock trade. Moreover, in developing countries where BTB controls are lacking, M. bovis is a public health concern. In most developing countries, the prevalence of BTB in livestock is unknown because the information is either not reported or not available. In Ecuador, there is no national BTB control program. This article reviews the BTB situation in Ecuador by examining exhaustive data from tuberculin testing surveys and slaughterhouse surveillance studies conducted in 1972-2008 in a variety of the country's geographic areas. In Ecuador, several factors, including the dairy industry's expansion (preempted by the high demand for milk and its by-products), intensified efforts to increase the cattle population, the presence of M. bovis, and a lack of BTB controls, have caused a rise in BTB prevalence, and consequently, a growing push for the implementation of a national BTB control program. La tuberculosis bovina es una enfermedad contagiosa crónica que afecta a los animales domésticos, los animales salvajes y los seres humanos. Es producida por Mycobacterium bovis; causa grandes pérdidas económicas y plantea una grave limitación para el comercio ganadero internacional. Por otro lado, en los países en desarrollo donde no hay controles de la tuberculosis bovina, la infección por M. bovis representa un problema de salud pública. En la mayoría de los países en desarrollo, la prevalencia de tuberculosis en el ganado se desconoce porque la información no se comunica o no se consigue. En el Ecuador no hay un programa nacional de control de la tuberculosis bovina. En este artículo se revisa la situación de la tuberculosis bovina en el Ecuador, sobre la base de un análisis de los datos exhaustivos obtenidos de encuestas sobre pruebas de tuberculina y de los estudios de vigilancia llevados a cabo ...