Bovine tuberculosis

8 L. Awada et al.

The control of bovine tuberculosis in cattle
is a major animal health issue in many parts of
the world. The analysis of the detailed quantita-
tive data in the WAHIS database provides inter-
esting information on the success of eradication
programmes (Knobler et al., 2005). It is clear
from the yearly incidence trend that the global
impact of bovine tuberculosis decreased consid-
erably between 2005 and 2015 (from an aver-
age of 1276 cases/year reported in 2005 to an
average of 1082 cases/year in 2015). These
quantitative results strengthen the findings of
the qualitative analysis, which showed a decreas-
ing trend over the past 30 years in the percent-
age of reporting countries that declared bovine
tuberculosis present.
However, the decrease shows strong
regional differences. In America, Europe and
Oceania, the eradication plans seem to have
been implemented efficiently, leading to the con-
trol of the bovine tuberculosis situation. In con-
trast, in other regions the disease has been
spreading and the impact on animal populations
(number of cases reported) remains very high.

1.5 The Situation in 2015: The

Worldwide Distribution in Domestic

Animals and in Wildlife

This section presents the worldwide distribution

of bovine tuberculosis in 2015, firstly for

domestic animals and secondly for wildlife,

based on data collected by the OIE through

WAHIS.

As of 4 May 2016, 165 countries had pro-

vided information for bovine tuberculosis in

domestic animals in 2015 and 50% of them

reported the disease present (Fig. 1.8). A total of

108 countries provided information for bovine

tuberculosis in wildlife and 25% of them

reported the disease present (Fig. 1.9). In all

cases the situation was reported to the OIE as

being stable, since in 2015 no alert was submit-

ted to the OIE for an exceptional epidemiological

event involving bovine tuberculosis.

As shown in Fig. 1.8, the global coverage of

information on the bovine tuberculosis situation

in domestic animals in 2015 is satisfactory, as a

very large proportion of countries in the world

Fig. 1.6. Trend in the average number of cases reported to the OIE since 2005 in the Americas and
Europe.

14000

12000

10000

8000

6000

Cases

Year

Americas

2006 2008 2010 2012 2014

Europe