Two new variants and 27 foci of bovine tuberculosis were detected in Dordogne during the 2020-2021 surveillance campaign, making this department the area most affected by this disease in France. With around thirty outbreaks identified over the period, the Dordogne represents nearly a third of the 93 outbreaks of contamination in France.
Of the herds infected this year in the department, 15 were completely slaughtered and 12 partially. An animal disease transmissible to humans (zoonosis), bovine tuberculosis is caused by bacteria. This bacterium can infect many species of ruminants, domestic and wild (mainly cattle and deer), but also wild boars, badgers and foxes.
Systematic slaughter of herds
To avoid any risk for humans, the veterinary services carry out a systematic inspection of animals after slaughter. When an outbreak is discovered in a farm, all the animals concerned are slaughtered and then cleaning and disinfection operations are carried out before restocking the herds. Unlike tuberculosis with inter-human transmission which is mainly pulmonary, bovine tuberculosis is in humans “in 80% of cases, with extra-pulmonary localization, in particular renal”, explains the Ministry of Agriculture on its website .