Case Report Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and Dual M. Tuberculosis/m. Bovis
Case Report Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and Dual M. Tuberculosis/m. Bovis
Case Report Mycobacterium Tuberculosis and Dual M. Tuberculosis/m. Bovis
Case Report
Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Dual M. tuberculosis/M. bovis
Infection as the Cause of Tuberculosis in a Gorilla and a Lioness,
Respectively, in Ibadan Zoo, Nigeria
Copyright © 2016 Aina Adeogun et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License,
which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Tuberculosis (TB) in zoo animals is an important public health problem in places where it occurs. This is even very important in
countries where there is little public health awareness about the disease; thus confined animals in the zoo can be infected directly or
indirectly by infected humans and vice versa. In Nigeria, the problem of TB is a major concern among both humans and cattle. Here,
we present cases of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and M. tuberculosis/M. bovis infections in a female gorilla and a lioness, respectively,
in a zoo in Ibadan, Nigeria. These cases were confirmed after bacteriological examinations and DNA from granulomatous lesions
of the animals’ carcasses were subjected to the Hain and spoligotyping techniques. Our findings reveal the first documented report
of TB infections in a gorilla and a lioness in zoo animals in Nigeria. The public health risks of tuberculosis in zoological settings are
therefore reemphasized.
Figure 1: The result of the Hain test for the gorilla and the lioness.
Figure 2: Emaciated lioness.
(a) (b)
Figure 4: The micrograph in section (a) shows the lioness lungs with extensive alveolar collapse and multiple foci of granulomatous reactions
in the lungs, ×100 H&E. (b) Higher magnification of section (a) showing extensive fibrosis, marked alveolar collapse, and mononuclear cellular
infiltrations.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43
NLA001000591 Lion · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · · ·
Figure 5: M. bovis spoligotype recovered from a lioness in a zoo in Ibadan, Nigeria.
elephants, and other exotic ungulates, carnivores, marine festive seasons, it becomes easy for animals and zookeepers
mammals, and psittacine birds [2, 3]. Disease associated with to become infected by TB patients who in most instances
M. tuberculosis has occurred mostly within captive settings may be unaware of their illnesses despite obvious symptoms
and does not appear to occur naturally in free-living mam- due to limited public health awareness about the disease
mals. Mycobacterium tuberculosis associated disease mostly [17, 18]. Similar scenario has accounted for zoo animal
occurs within captive settings and rarely appears naturally infection in other settings in Sweden, Thailand, and USA,
in free-living mammals [3]. In Nigeria, several reports have [3, 5, 6, 19].
been made concerning human and bovine TB [7, 9, 12–15]. In conclusion, this study confirms cases of TB due to
Globally, Nigeria ranks 4th among the TB burdened nations M. tuberculosis and M. tuberculosis/M. bovis in a gorilla
[1]; coupled with this, BTB is endemic among farm and and a lioness, respectively, in a zoo in Nigeria. Due to the
slaughtered animals [7–9, 14]. Due to the high prevalence of high prevalence of human and BTB in Nigeria, we advocate
human pulmonary TB in Nigeria and observed poor hygienic that more public health precautions be taken by zookeepers
habits of zookeepers as well as visitors, animals within the in the country and most TB endemic countries with high
private zoo in Ibadan are therefore exposed to possible risk contact between humans and wildlife. In addition, efforts
of TB infections from humans. should be put in place to routinely screen zookeepers who
The gorilla at this zoo was particularly at grave risk of can indirectly transmit infections from the visiting public
exposure to TB, given the multitude of people who went to the animals. In the same vein, public contacts with the
visiting her, since she was a center of attraction in the zoo. The animals must be reduced to the barest minimum. More
fact that she also lived in the zoo for about 42 years (brought importantly, raw meat/animals fed to zoo animals should go
into the zoo in 1962 when she was about 5 years) also meant through routine meat inspection checks in order to control
that old age and confinement might have contributed to her infection with M. bovis. Finally, we advocate continuous
vulnerability and death to TB. public health awareness to zoo visitors as a way of step-
The lioness had dual infection resulting from M. tubercu- ping up TB enlightenment and control in disease endemic
losis and M. bovis. The M. tuberculosis infection could be due countries.
to similar scenario presented for the gorilla (particularly as
it relates to occasional confinement during which the human Competing Interests
contact is close and highest) and her relatively old age. The
most likely source of her M. bovis infection could be due The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
to contaminated raw meat she was fed, mainly from the
abattoir where 4.3% prevalence of BTB has been reported in Acknowledgments
slaughtered cattle [16] and with reports of M. bovis infection
in slaughtered goats [14]. The fact that the animals fed to the The authors sincerely thank the entire team of the National
lions in the zoo are not subjected to prior postmortem checks Tuberculosis Reference Laboratory, National Institute for
makes them vulnerable to M. bovis infection. Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, Nether-
From the public health perspective, since the zoo envi- lands, for assisting with part of the laboratory analy-
ronment is mostly congested with human population at sis.
4 Case Reports in Veterinary Medicine
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