Prevalence of suspected tuberculous lesions in cattle slaughtered in Cross River State Abattoirs

Granulomatous lessons in liver intestine, spleen, lung and lymph nodes (mediastinal, bronchial, retropharynged and mesenteric) were collected from slaughtered cattle in each of the main abattoirs in Bakoko, Ikom and Ogoja respectively in Cross River State South, Central and North senatorial cones during a one year (April, 2002 - March 2003) study period. 8,990 cattle were slaughtered and examined during the period. Of this number, tuberculous organs collected from 120 (1.3%) of the slaughtered cattle tested positive by the Ziehl-Neelsen (acid-fast) technique. There was no significant difference (P>0.05) between the prevalence of tuberculous lesions during the dry and rainy seasons, although a slightly higher prevalence was found during the former (1.5%) than the later (1.1%) season. Of the 120 tuberculous lesions found 71(1.6%) occurred in females while 19 (1.1%) occurred in males. The organs affected most were the lungs 73 (55.7%) and lymph nodes 40 (30.58%) while the least affected organ was the disphragmatic muscle 1(0.76%). It was concluded that the overall prevalence of 1.3% of tuberculous lesions in organs of slaughter cattle in the state is of epidemiological importance and further studies are needed to isolate and type the acid-fast organisms in order 10 properly assess their public health significance.