Vet World Vol.13 September-2020 Article-11
Review Article
Veterinary World, 13(9): 1822-1836
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2020.1822-1836
Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in wildlife: Review of current applications of antemortem and postmortem diagnosis
2. Department of Veterinary Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Maiduguri, 1069 PMB, Maiduguri, Borno State, Nigeria.
3. Department of Veterinary Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
4. Department of Farm and Exotic Animal Medicine and Surgery, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Putra Malaysia, 43400 UPM Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia.
5. Department of Paraclinical, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Universiti Malaysia Kelantan, Pengkalan Chepa, 16100 Kota Bharu, Kelantan, Malaysia.
Background and Aim: Tuberculosis (TB) is a chronic inflammatory and zoonotic disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) members, which affects various domestic animals, wildlife, and humans. Some wild animals serve as reservoir hosts in the transmission and epidemiology of the disease. Therefore, the monitoring and surveillance of both wild and domestic hosts are critical for prevention and control strategies. For TB diagnosis, the single intradermal tuberculin test or the single comparative intradermal tuberculin test, and the gamma-interferon test, which is regarded as an ancillary test, are used. Postmortem examination can identify granulomatous lesions compatible with a diagnosis of TB . In contrast, smears of the lesions can be stained for acid-fast bacilli, and samples of the affected organs can be subjected to histopathological analyses. Culture is the gold standard test for isolating mycobacterial bacilli because it has high sensitivity and specificity compared with other methods. Serology for antibody detection allows the testing of many samples simply, rapidly, and inexpensively, and the protocol can be standardized in different laboratories. Molecular biological analyses are also applicable to trace the epidemiology of the disease. In conclusion, reviewing the various techniques used in MTBC diagnosis can help establish guidelines for researchers when choosing a particular diagnostic method depending on the situation at hand, be it disease outbreaks in wildlife or for epidemiological studies. This is because a good understanding of various diagnostic techniques will aid in monitoring and managing emerging pandemic threats of infectious diseases from wildlife and also preventing the potential spread of zoonotic TB to livestock and humans. This review aimed to provide up-to-date information on different techniques used for diagnosing TB at the interfaces between wildlife, livestock, and humans.
Keywords: culture, ELISA, gamma interferon test, genotyping, histopathology, Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, polymerase chain reaction, wildlife.
How to cite this article: Lekko YM, Ooi PT, Omar S, Mazlan M, Ramanoon SZ, Jasni S, Jesse FFA, Che-Amat A (2020) Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in wildlife: Review of current applications of antemortem and postmortem diagnosis, Veterinary World, 13(9): 1822-1836.
Received: 29-02-2020 Accepted: 16-07-2020 Published online: 09-09-2020
Corresponding author: Azlan Che-Amat E-mail: c_azlan@upm.edu.my
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2020.1822-1836
Copyright: Lekko, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.