Bovine Tuberculosis in India: Zoonotic Perspective and Available Diagnostics

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) and is a chronic and contagious bacterial disease of bovines caused by<em> Mycobacterium bovis </em>(<em>M. bovis</em>). <em>M. bovis </em>constitutes an undeniable portion of human TB cases worldwide which line this disease as an important global threat to animal and public health. <strong>Distribution in India</strong> The situation of bovine TB in developing countries like India is more dreadful due to a huge susceptible livestock population (300 million), and that too in close existence with human population. In India, bTB has been reported from several states (Fig. 1) with a varying pooled prevalence. Overall, India has a prevalence of 7.3% for the bTB, meaning around 21.8 million bovine populations in India might have bTB.