Isolation and genotyping of Mycobacterium bovis in suggestive lesions of tuberculosis in cattle slaughtered in the state of Ceará, Brazil

ABSTRACT: Bovine tuberculosis (BTB) is a zoonosis caused by the bacterium Mycobacterium bovis, which induces the development of nodular and granulomatous lesions in various animal tissues. The recognition of these suggestive gross lesions during postmortem sanitary inspection in slaughterhouses provides a presumptive diagnosis, which requires the use of complementary tests to confirm the disease. This study aimed to verify the occurrence of BTB in cattle slaughtered in slaughterhouses in the state of Ceará, Brazil, using bacteriological and molecular methods. To this end, suggestive lesions were analyzed on carcasses condemned by the “Serviço de Inspeção Estadual” (SIE). The samples were submitted to microbiological analysis using culture media and specific staining followed by spoligotyping molecular technique for identification and genotyping of the mycobacteria. Occurrence of lesions suggestive of BTB was verified in bovine carcasses (0.071%) from different municipalities of the state. These lesions were located mainly in the lung (95.12%), lymph nodes (58.53%), and liver (36.58%). Microbiological culture showed bacterial isolation (17.94%), with the growth of colonies showing morphological and tannic characteristics belonging to genus Mycobacterium spp. Genetic polymorphism analysis identified M. bovis in all isolates, which were discriminated into six spoligotypes (SB0121, SB0295, SB1064, SB0120, SB0870, and SB0852). These profiles have been described in Brazil and several areas of the world, except for profiles SB1064 and SB0852, which were described in the country for the first time. The results show that the association of the diagnostic methods used was the basis for the first study on identification of mycobacteria found in the state, which may provide a database for the epidemiological study of BTB in the state of Ceará.