Improving the rapid diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis

The lifetime diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis is usually performed by allergic express method of intradermal tuberculin test using PPD tuberculin, but there is a significant probability of false diagnosis due to sensitization of animals to tuberculin stimulated by non-tuberculosis mycobacteria (NTM). For more accurate diagnosis and in doubtful cases, additional studies based on an attempt to isolate a pure culture of mycobacteria from pathologic material with subsequent determination of the species affiliation of the pathogen by studying tinctorial, morphologic, cultural and biochemical properties, as well as subsequent confirmation of its pathogenicity by determining antigenic and biological properties are necessary. This methodology, based on the postulates of Koch-Genle, although it is the traditional “gold standard”, but requires significant expenditure of material, labor and time resources. The development of laboratory diagnostic practice in recent decades allows us to consider new possibilities in the diagnosis of animal tuberculosis. The article presents the materials of the research, the purpose of which was to study the data of spectrophotometric measurements in combination with the results of hematological analysis. The studies have shown that the spectrograms of hemolysate of animals, the fact of infection of which is confirmed by the above diagnostic sequence of classical methods based on isolation of pure culture, have pronounced peaks of transmission coefficients with delta in the range of 2700-3600 units. The accuracy of the proposed method is 98%, allowing to confirm the presence (or absence) of the pathogen on the 3-5th day.