Tuberculosis is chronic infectious disease of animals and human beings, which is characterized by progressive emaciation, nodules formation in lungs and involvement of local lymph nodes. Tuberculosis is caused by mycobacterium species and it is endemic in Pakistan. In the world ranking regarding tuberculosis patients, Pakistan is on 6th position.
A case control study was conducted in Peshawar city and its suburbs in order to determine the risk factors of tuberculosis in dairy animals. Prevalence of tuberculosis in dairy animals recorded in this study was 18.27%. A total of 750 dairy animals were included in the study in which 250 were positive cases and 500 were controls on the basis of tuberculin skin test. Controls were divided into two groups, group 1(animals above 1 year of age) group 2(animals under 1 year of age). All these animals were selected from civil veterinary hospital Peshawar and veterinary teaching hospital (University of Agriculture Peshawar); and villages located on ring road of Peshawar city.
Data was collected from the owner on pre designed questionnaire to determine different risk factors associated with tuberculosis and it was analyzed by using SPSS 16.0. The calculated odds ratio in descending order were 2.70 for rotational grazing practice, 2.52 for keeping donkey with dairy animals, 2.22 for not having own bull for breeding, 2.05 for keeping animals inside the shed at night, 2.02 for living in rural geographical environment, 1.87 for low socio-economic status, 1.65 for not using tap water, 1.59 for herd size more than 16-30 animals, 1.47 for non lactating animals, 1.47 for illiterate owners, 1.42 for contact with wild animals, 1.30 for keeping old animals within the herd, 1.25 for using fertilizer on crops that offer to animals, 1.22 for cattle, 1.17 for dung disposal weekly and 0.45 for deworming practice in dairy animals. Odds ratio more than 1 was considered being a risk factor while less than 1 was being considered as a health promoting factor. P-value < 0.05 was considered as significant.
Tuberculosis is disease of zoonotic importance, and its incidence increasing day by day both in humans and animals. Therefore further research is the need of time to control and eradicate this disease globally.