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. 2017 Aug 17;13(1):252.
doi: 10.1186/s12917-017-1182-5.

Field evaluation of the efficacy of Mycobacterium bovis BCG vaccine against tuberculosis in goats

Enric Vidal  1 , Claudia Arrieta-Villegas  2 , Miriam Grasa  3 , Irene Mercader  4 , Mariano Domingo  5   2 , Bernat Pérez de Val  5
Affiliations

Field evaluation of the efficacy of Mycobacterium bovis BCG vaccine against tuberculosis in goats

Enric Vidal et al. BMC Vet Res. .

Abstract

Background: Control of animal tuberculosis (TB) through vaccination has emerged as a long-term strategy to complement test and slaughter control strategy. A pilot trial under field conditions was conducted in a goat herd with high TB prevalence to assess the efficacy of the Mycobacterium bovis BCG vaccine.

Results: Twenty-three goat kids vaccinated with BCG and other 22 unvaccinated control kids were euthanized at 18 months post-vaccination. Gross pathological and histopathological examination of target tissues was performed for detection of tuberculous lesions and assessment of vaccine efficacy. Mycobacterial culture and DNA detection were used to confirm Mycobacterium caprae infection. Vaccination significantly reduced the number of animals with TB lesions compared to unvaccinated controls (35% and 77%, respectively; P < 0.01). This reduction was even higher if only extra-pulmonary infection was considered (17% and 68%, respectively; P < 0.001).

Conclusions: This trial demonstrates that BCG vaccination of goats can significantly reduce the TB lesion rates in high disease exposure conditions, indicating that vaccination could contribute to the control of TB in domestic goats.

Keywords: BCG; Efficacy; Field study; Goats; Tuberculosis; Vaccine.

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Conflict of interest statement

Ethics approval

All experimental procedures were undertaken in accordance with the European Union Laws for protection of experimental animals (86/609), and ethical approval was obtained from the Animal Research Ethic Commission of the Generalitat de Catalunya.

Consent for publication

Not applicable.

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Publisher’s Note

Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Study of tuberculous lesions. a Goat showing a pulmonary tuberculous granuloma (arrow) and tuberculous lesions in the mediastinal lymph node (arrowheads). b Histopathological study of the lung lesion observed in a. The insert shows Ziehl-Neelsen stained mycobacteria. c Goat with tuberculous granulomatous lymphadenitis lesions in the mesenteric lymph node (arrowhead). d Histopathology of the lesions observed in C, showing paubacillary tuberculous granulomatous lymphadenitis. The insert shows a Ziehl-Neelsen positive bacillus
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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