The prevalence of tuberculosis like lesions in cattle from protected kraals :

Abstract

The study was to determine the prevalence of Tuberculosis like lesions in cattle from protected kraals of Moroto district through post-mortem inspection in Moroto Municipal abattoir by examining, clinical and subclinical lesions of organs like tonsils, lungs, liver, spleen, kidneys, cavities and lymph nodes that drain them with the main objective of determining presence and prevalence rate of bovine tuberculosis in protected kraals. The study was carried out in a period of three weeks. The results obtained showed that more cattle originated from protected kraals (95.4% of all slaughters came from kraals) only 4.6% came from homesteads. Equally all the cases with positive bovine TB lesions were from protected kraals, i.e. 6 cattle representing 5.6 % of all slaughtered cattle and 5.8% of cattle from protected kraals. Observations were made, on all the cattle, slaughtered during the time of study totalling to 108 cattle. The protected kraals in, Moroto are similar in operation to all other protected kraals in pastoral areas of karamoja and this system was introduced during the disarmament program in Karamoja in the early 2000 Where animals from several herds are confined into SAME paddocks during night protected by UPDF yet herd mixing has been seen as a major risk factor for bovine TB spread. Thus this study was to investigate the relationship between protected kraals and BTB incidences. This results proved that protected kraals increase the risk to bovine TB. The conditions in protected kraals features mixed herds from several households and different age groups, large stock size, animals closely interacting with humans, poor/lack of adherence good livestock management practices and transhumance system of livestock keeping. The major challenge was difficulty in detection of non-obvious Iesions in the abattoir thru reliance on only gross pathological lesions; this can be improved in future by establishing a laboratory for the abattoir. Note that TB here means bovine TB. Key recommendations drawn from this study targets the local government and other stakeholders in karamoja region, these include sensitization of pastoral communities on a TB need to establish and fully equip veterinary laboratory at Moroto Municipal abattoir for effective diagnosis, provision of protective gears to abattoir personnels and creating better design for community kraals in a manlier that controls spread of bovine TB