History of the Eradication of Bovine Tuberculosis in the Czech Republic

Overview

In 1968 in the Czech republic the programme of elimination of tuberculosis in cattle caused by germs ofMycobacterium bovis was successfully completed. The project proper was started in 1959 by examination of thewhole population of cattle with tuberculin tests. The situation which was revealed was disastrous: the prevalence incattle was on average 21.03 % whereby it reached 32.26 % in milking cows, i.e. every third cow had TB, as wasalso confirmed in slaughterhouses. Hundreds of cases in humans caused by M. bovis were notified. The annualeconomic losses were more than a billion crowns. The health campaign was based on the method “test and slaughter”and on the replacement of heavily infected herds by TB free ones. It was necessary to replace 1 360 000 heads ofTB cattle. This called for the solution of many complicated methodical, legislative, organizational, economic andsocial problems. Mandatory pasteurization of milk was introduced. Tuberculin tests of the whole cattle population(on average twice a year) supplemented by epizootological, laboratory and postmortem examinations led to thedetection of all foci. The final results are up to the present time reflected in the substantially better production capacityof the cattle, TB free milk and a marked decline of M. bovis in humans.

Key words:
Mycobacterium bovis, bovine tuberculosis, health campaign.