P010

1:National Veterinary Research Institute in Pulawy, Poland; 2:National Tuberculosis and Lung Diseases Research Institute, Warsaw, Poland; 3:University of Life Sciences in Lublin, Poland

Animal tuberculosis is detected mainly in cattle, its etiological factor is the species Mycobacterium bovis and Mycobacterium caprae. The causative factor for the spread of infection between alpacas is usually the movement of asymptomatic carriers. In vivo diagnosis of TB in alpacas, species other than cattle, is difficult to perform due to problems with obtaining appropriate material for testing and the lack of appropriate diagnostic methods. The tuberculin skin test (TST) in European countries, including Poland, is still considered the official screening test for animal infection.

However, performing TST in alpacas does not provide fully reliable results due to the possibility of obtaining false negative results, which was confirmed in studies of alpacas in Poland in 2018-2019. The occurrence of TB was directly related to the import of sick individuals from Great Britain. As a result of molecular epidemiological investigations based on genotyping of the cultured strains, 5 outbreaks of animal tuberculosis were confirmed in Poland in alpacas and a common source of their infection was established. A total of 27 animals died or were put down. The strains obtained in bacterial culture, based on spoligotyping, were classified as Mycobacterium bovis with spoligotype SB0666. According to the database of bovine spoligotypes – SB0666 comes from Great Britain and was registered in 2003. Owners of sick animals usually eliminated them at their own expense, without performing the necessary autopsy, and also without the knowledge of the District Veterinary Officer, in most cases not subjecting the dead animals to thorough microbiological tests.