ABSTRACT
Tuberculosis is major concern for WHO especially after the onset of the AIDS epidemic and the increase of multidrug resistance, and is considered the main cause of death by a single agent. In addition to Mycobaterium tuberculosis tuberculosis, the main cause of the disease in humans, the infection by Mycobaterium bovis is also of epidemiological importance, as it can be transmitted to humans, especially by ingestion of contaminated foods, and the risk is heightened due to the lack of information related to population prevalence. In several parts of world, there are programs to control the disease in cattle based on the identification of positive animals using tuberculin tests, followed by slaughtering. The lesions identified by post-mortem exams can be confirmed through isolation and identification of the agent, but it takes months to conclude. New molecular methods have been proposed to reduce the time needed for diagnosis down to a few days. With a view to providing a picture of these new diagnostic methodologies for bovine tuberculosis, such as the PCR assay, these authors reviewed the results of studies reporting their advantages and shortcomings as well as the prospects for their large-scale application. Despite the advances in the development of viable methods there is yet no sensitive, reproducible and rapid method and, therefore, it is necessary to undertake research to overcome these problems.
KEY WORDS
Mycobaterium bovis
; PCR; diagnosis; tuberculosis