A systematic review and meta-analysis of bovine tuberculosis occurrence and burden in Bangladesh, 1970-2023

Abstract

We aimed to estimate the overall apparent prevalence, true prevalence, and the spatial, temporal, and test-specific burden of bovine tuberculosis in Bangladesh. PubMed, Web of Science, Scopus, Google Scholar, and BanglaJOL were searched for bovine tuberculosis publications in Bangladesh from 1 January 1970 to 23 June 2023. Of 142 articles screened, systematic review and meta-analysis were performed on 22 (15.5%) articles. The apparent estimated bovine tuberculosis prevalence was 7%. The apparent Bayesian pooled mean bovine tuberculosis prevalences based on caudal fold test and single intradermal comparative tuberculin test were 7.83% and 9.89%, respectively, and the true pooled mean prevalences were 10.39% and 10.48%, respectively. Targeted interventions are recommended for districts with higher prevalence to effectively reduce the bovine tuberculosis burden in those areas. Current diagnostic practices employed in Bangladesh may not accurately reflect the bovine tuberculosis burden. Our findings highlight the need for better diagnostic tools and supplemental testing methods to ensure accurate diagnosis and surveillance. Efforts should prioritize obtaining 'true' prevalence estimates corrected for misclassification bias, rather than relying solely on apparent prevalence. Underestimating the bovine tuberculosis burden could result in inadequate resource allocation and hinder the implementation of effective control measures.

Keywords: Mycobacterium bovis; Mycobacterium orygis; one health; true prevalence; zoonotic tuberculosis.

Figure 1.

The search and selection strategy applied in a study of bovine tuberculosis occurrence and burden in Bangladesh, 1970–2023 [21].

Figure 2.

A forest plot represents the reported prevalences of bTB in each publication included in the meta-analysis for this study. The random-effects (RE) models have assigned weights to each publication proportional to sample size to enable a comprehensive comparison of the data. In this context, ‘Total’ represents the total number of animals included in each publication, while ‘Events’ refers to the number of animals that tested positive for bovine tuberculosis (bTB). The term ‘Proportion’ indicates the reported prevalence of bTB within each individual publication.

Figure 3.

A map showing the study locations and meta-analytic prevalence of bovine tuberculosis in Bangladesh, 1970 to 2023. Produced in Python using Matplotlib and Geopandas libraries.

Figure 4.

Comparison of bTB apparent and true prevalences through Bayesian Beta-binomial hierarchical models and the use of tPRiors on Caudal Fold Test (CFT) and Single Intradermal Comparative Tuberculin Test (SICTT) in a meta-analysis of bovine tuberculosis in Bangladesh, 1970 to 2023.