Comparison of tuberculin skin test and lateral flow rapid test for detection of bovine tuberculosis in dairy cattle

Tuberculosis is the most important zoonotic bacterial disease that is hazardous to both man and animals. A huge economic loss which could be direct or indirect is associated with the disease, so rapid diagnostic tests for tuberculosis are needed to facilitate early detection and prevention of disease transmission. The aim of this work is the detection of bovine tuberculosis by application of different serological tests. Tuberculin skin test applied on 1900 cattle, only 50 (2.6%) showed positive results, and then slaughtered. Forty five (90%) of slaughtered animals showed visible lesions on post mortem examination, while the other five (10%) showed non visible lesions. The bacteriological examination of the 50 samples reveled Mycobacterium bovis form 40 processed samples (80%). Results of Anigen Rapid Bovine TB Ab test and ELISA test had detected 42% and 48% of tuberculin positive cattle respectively. It was concluded that the Anigen Rapid Bovine TB Ab kit test is rapid, safe, simple and easy to perform and provide yes or no results within 15 to 20 minutes but it is not efficient for detection of bovine tuberculosis in cattle and could be useful as a complementary for tuberculin test.