Abstract

PRELIMINARY ASSESSESMENT ON THE EPIDEMIOLOGY AND PUBLIC HEALTH IMPLICATION OF CAMEL TUBERCULOSIS IN PASTORAL AREA OF ETHIOPIA

Teshager Dubie*, Tesfaye Sisay, Fikre Zeru, Mu-uz Gebru and Wossene Negash

Abstract

Tuberculosis is a major health problem throughout the world causing large number of deaths both in humans and animals, more than that from any other single infectious disease. It is a highly successful intracellular pathogen that has developed strategies to survive even in the presence of high immune pressure. The usual site of entry into the human body is through the airways, beginning with the inhalation of infected droplets expelled from another infected individual through coughing. Although being caused by a quite simple microorganism, TB is a multifaceted disease with a spectrum of antimicrobial effector pathways at play during different stages of infection, ranging from early innate to late adaptive immune responses during acute and chronic infection. Even though both innate and adaptive immunity are coordinated to protect the body from this infection and disease development, Cell mediated adaptive immunity is the main one against MTB infection. Ethiopia ranks seventh in the list of 22 high burden countries. In camel it is chiefly caused by M. tuberculosis and M. bovis, even though a typical Mycobacterium species are occasionally responsible for the outbreak of the disease. Camel TB has worldwide distribution and present countries where camels are reared even if it is not well recognized and confirmed in many developing countries including Ethiopia. The disease is manifested the clinical signs of chronic weight loss or emaciation, weakness, dyspnea, cough and enlarged lymph node and lesions of caseous nodules in different organs. Camel TB has public health implication particularly in pastoral area of Ethiopia, nomadic environment, where camel milk and its products are consumed as raw and in countries where camels are kept under intensive management system for racing purpose in which the etiological agents are transmitted to humans through aerogenous route from those animals with active cases in the herd.

Keywords: Camel tuberculosis, Epidemiology, M. bovis, public health implication.