Point prevalence and incidence of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex in captive elephants in the United States of America.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Captive elephants infected with tuberculosis are implicated as an occupational source of zoonotic tuberculosis. However, accurate estimates of prevalence and incidence of elephant tuberculosis from well-defined captive populations are lacking in the literature. Studies published in recent years contain a wide range of prevalence estimates calculated from summary data. Incidence estimates of elephant tuberculosis in captive elephants are not available.

Objective

This study estimated the annual point prevalence, annual incidence, cumulative incidence, and incidence density of tuberculosis in captive elephants within the USA during the past 52 years.

Animals and methods

We combined existing elephant census records from captive elephants in the USA with tubercu

SUBMITTER: Feldman M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3631271 | biostudies-literature | 2013

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature