Tuberculosis in Wild Animals a Great Threat for Wildlife Conservation and Public Health- A Review

Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the rising problems in the whole world in wild animals. As we know, countries like India, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Pakistan, etc. are considered the home of many endangered wildlife species like the Asian elephant, Rhinoceros, Markhor, Snow Leopard, and Bengal tiger. These countries carry 44% of the burden of TB in the form of human TB, livestock TB, and wildlife TB. The TB pathogen is having a wide host range, therefore it is of great importance and need of the hour to work under one health concept to construct a composite TB control program in the medical as well as veterinary fields. Moreover, further researches are yet to be made on this challenging arena. Globally, many studies have been conducted to discover the types of tuberculosis in wild animals. Recent studies had declared that Mycobacterium tuberculosis is not only the causative agent of tuberculosis in wild animals but other mycobacterium species are also a growing threat. It was demonstrated that a wide variety of mycobacterium strains are present in the whole region, particularly in developing countries pointing out its endemic distribution. Tuberculosis in the free-ranging Rhinoceros in South Africa, Nepal, and Sri Lanka is associated with the M. bovis and M. orygis that also signify the threats of TB in other wild animal species including chances of unknown maintenance host. Some other research has revealed that there is a rising challenge of TB in the elephants too in different countries of the World. Being a major reservoir host of tuberculosis, wildlife has become a conservation and public health challenge all over the World.