Fasciola hepatica is associated with the failure to detect bovine tuberculosis in dairy cattle.

ABSTRACT: Bovine tuberculosis (BTB) is a significant and intractable disease of cattle caused by Mycobacterium bovis. In the United Kingdom, despite an aggressive eradication programme, the prevalence of BTB is increasing with an unexplained, exponential rise in cases year on year. Here we show in a study involving 3,026 dairy herds in England and Wales that there is a significant negative association between exposure to the common, ubiquitous helminth parasite, Fasciola hepatica and diagnosis of BTB. The magnitude of the single intradermal comparative cervical tuberculin test used to diagnose BTB is reduced in cattle experimentally co-infected with M. bovis and F. hepa

SUBMITTER: Claridge J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3989536 | biostudies-literature | 2012 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature