02647-A: Investigation of Cytokine Biomarkers for the Diagnosis of Canine Tuberculosis
Grant Status: Closed
One Health: Yes
Abstract
Tuberculosis (TB) is a global disease which affects both humans and animals. As our most commonly kept companion animals, domestic dogs can be the source or recipient of human TB infections. The pathogen Mycobacterium (M.) bovis is one of the organisms capable of causing TB in a very broad range of potential host animals in both the USA and the United Kingdom (UK), including many species of deer, cattle and camelids but also pet cats, dogs and humans. Data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control indicate that ~2% of human TB cases in the USA are M. bovis infections. Historically, canine TB cases have only been reported in small numbers of individual animals. Between 2016 and 2017 the investigators studied a prolonged outbreak of M. bovis TB in a kennel of dogs in the UK. Over half of the animals were positive for M. bovis, and all dogs with bacterial isolates had the same strain. The researchers will test these samples for markers of inflammation to improve the accuracy of diagnostic testing for the emergent infectious disease.
Publication(s)
None at this time.
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