TB in animals: Humans must beware of consuming goat meat delicacies —Public health vet

A  public health veterinarian, Professor Simeon Cadmus has cautioned on the consumption of goat meat delicacies, saying the practice of grazing cattle and goats together makes goats pose a risk of transmitting tuberculosis (TB) to humans, too.

Professor Cadmus, in the 512th inaugural lecture entitled “On the trail of two Enigmatic Foes: the Story of an Enthusiast” he delivered at the University of Ibadan, said diagnosis of tuberculosis has also been made in goats and asked that those who eat goat meat delicacies should beware.

He said livestock owners in Nigeria normally graze cattle and goats together and pose a high risk for transmission of TB among these animals given that cattle are the main reservoir of  Mycobacterium bovine (M. bovine) and therefore a grave danger to public health.

According to him, “over six months, we screened 1,387, with 62 (4.5 per cent) showing lesions suggestive of TB in the liver, lungs and mesenteric lymph nodes. Using different molecular techniques, we isolated four strains of M. Bovis and one strain of M. tuberculosis from the goats.

“One M. bovis isolate was obtained from a male goat; the three remaining M. bovis isolates and the M. tuberculosis isolate were obtained from female goats. M. Tuberculosis remains the main causative agent for human TB. M. bovis is the main cause of TB in cattle. It also affects primates and humans. In humans, M. bovis causes a disease that can affect the lungs, lymph nodes and other body parts,”

While noting that TB is an infectious disease that spares no individual of any age, sex, race, nationality or social status, Professor Cadmus said Nigeria continues to experience increased morbidity and mortality from the infectious disease due to poverty, a weak health system, poor health-seeking behaviour and lately the COVID-19 pandemic.

He, however, stated that TB remains an intractable enigmatic foe despite the array of combination therapies employed in managing the disease and the development of multi-drug resistant TB and extensively drug-resistant TB as well as COVID-19.

While speaking on brucellosis, Professor Cadmus said mixed rearing of cattle and poultry had predisposed poultry in the country to bovine brucellosis and further underscores that local chickens be included in Nigeria’s epidemiology and control of the brucellosis, a zoonotic disease whose prevalence is highest in West Africa.

The don said there was a need for a system overhaul to encourage serious research and academic excellence at the University as well as the establishment of a grant management structure that facilitates easy access to grant funds as soon as they are domiciled in the University to make the University better grant-friendly.