The present study was aimed to assess the prevalence and efficiency of techniques for the diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) including enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), Gamma interferon assay (IFN-γ) and polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in comparison to skin tuberculin test and culture technique. A total of 2600 cross-breed dairy cattle in Menoufia and Daqahlia governorates were tested by the single intradermal tuberculin test where the disease prevalence was 1.8%. Serum and whole blood samples were collected from positive tuberculin reactors for ELISA and IFN-γ assay, respectively. After slaughtering of positive tuberculin reactors, the post-mortem examination was carried out and tissue samples were collected for the bacteriological examination and PCR. The percentage of visible lesions of tuberculin reactors was 78.7%, while non-visible lesions were 21.27%. Culture technique revealed that the percentage of bTB was 63.8%. The ELISA and IFN-γ assay using short-term culture filtrate (ST-CF) prepared antigen revealed higher sensitivity (72.3% and 82.9%) than the bovine purified protein derivative (PPD-B) antigen. Although prepared ST-CF antigen has great efficiency and eligibility for the diagnosis of bTB, PCR appeared to have a higher sensitivity (85.1%) than other diagnostic methods when dealing with post-mortem samples. Gamma interferon assay using ST-CF antigen is recommended for antemortem diagnosis of bTB in cattle.
Keywords: Bovine tuberculosis; ELISA; IFN-γ assay; PCR; PPD-B; ST-CF.
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