Zoonotic tuberculosis in human beings caused by Mycobacterium bovis —a call for action

Abstract

Mycobacterium tuberculosis is recognised as the primary cause of human tuberculosis worldwide. However, substantial evidence suggests that the burden of Mycobacterium bovis, the cause of bovine tuberculosis, might be underestimated in human beings as the cause of zoonotic tuberculosis. In 2013, results from a systematic review and meta-analysis of global zoonotic tuberculosis showed that the same challenges and concerns expressed 15 years ago remain valid. These challenges faced by people with zoonotic tuberculosis might not be proportional to the scientific attention and resources allocated in recent years to other diseases. The burden of zoonotic tuberculosis in people needs important reassessment, especially in areas where bovine tuberculosis is endemic and where people live in conditions that favour direct contact with infected animals or animal products. As countries move towards detecting the 3 million tuberculosis cases estimated to be missed annually, and in view of WHO's end TB strategy endorsed by the health authorities of WHO Member States in 2014 to achieve a world free of tuberculosis by 2035, we call on all tuberculosis stakeholders to act to accurately diagnose and treat tuberculosis caused by M bovis in human beings.

Microbial genomes from non-human primate gut metagenomes expand the primate-associated bacterial tree of life with over 1000 novel species

“…While the former is suggestive of recent inter-host transmission or common acquisition from common sources, the second can be the basis to study microbial evolution or diversification as a consequence of host speciation, especially if phylogenies can be dated using ancient microbiome samples [71] or other time constraints [72]. Our framework can thus be exploited to study inter-host species and zoonotic microbial transmission that is currently mostly limited to specific pathogens of interest [73][74][75][76][77][78]. The catalog of primate-associated microbial genomes can thus serve as a basis for a better comprehension of the human microbiome in light of recent and ancient cross-primate transmission and environmental acquisition of microbial diversity.…”

Genetic diversity of Mycobacterium bovis in Jalisco, Mexico: Tracing back sources of infection

“…Bacilli in this group are 99.9% genetically similar at the nucleotide level with identical 16S rRNA sequences (Boddinghaus et al, 1990;Sreevatsan et al, 1997) (O'Reilly and Daborn, 1995;Blischak et al, 2015). The proportion of cases due to M. bovis in humans in the last two decades has been variable, ranging from 0.5 to 13% depending on the study population, and it is estimated that nearly 10 million people are affected by tuberculosis worldwide every year (Müller et al, 2013;Olea-Popelka et al, 2017;PereaRazo et al, 2017). Transmission to humans occurs by inhalation of infectious droplets from infected cattle, and consumption of contaminated unpasteurized dairy products (de la .…”

Epidemiology of Mycobacterium bovis Disease in Humans in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, 2002–2014

“…The implementation of methods to identify M. bovis where culture is not possible have been highlighted as essential ( 16 , 41 , 42 ). Although findings from England, Wales, and Northern Ireland cannot be extrapolated even to other high-income countries, much less to high TB burden, low-income countries, our study does illustrate the value of monitoring M. bovis disease and the data required to do so.…”