Introduction

Burkina Faso is a resource-poor country situated in the heart of West Africa. It is surrounded by six countries and shares its northern and western borders with Mali, its northeastern border with Niger, its southeastern border with Benin, and its southern border with Ghana, Togo, and Cote d’Ivoire.

The country’s livestock population was recently estimated at about 8.7 million cattle, 8.7 million sheep, and 13 million goats. The administrative region of Sahel, one of Burkina Faso’s 13 administrative regions, is a predominantly pastoral area and has the largest number of cattle of all the regions. The Fulani pastoralists (also known as the Peulh), one of more than 60 ethnic groups in Burkina Faso, practice an extensive transhumant husbandry system in the Sahel region where it is their main socioeconomic activity. They live in close and permanent contact with their animals and consume raw or curdled raw milk.

Several important animal diseases are prevalent in Burkina Faso, including bovine tuberculosis (BTB) that occupies an important place (Coulibaly and Yameogo 2000). The presence of TB creates both animal and public health, and economic problems for Burkina Faso. Economically, the financial losses attributable to BTB are related to decreased livestock productivity (reduced milk production,

A. Sanou (*)

Bacteriology Laboratory of Centre MURAZ, Department of Biomedical Sciences, Centre MURAZ, Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso

Research and Training Unit in Science and Technology, Polytechnic University of Bobo-Dioulasso, Bobo-Dioulasso, Burkina Faso

© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

A.

Table 11.1 Bovine tuberculosis surveys conducted in Burkina Faso (Letroteur 1952; Sere 1966;

Gidel et al. 1969a, b; Rey et al. 1986; Delafosse et al. 1995; Vekemans et al. 1999; Traore et al. 2004; Boussini et al. 2012; Tarnagda et al. 2014)

TST tuberculin skin test, AI abattoir inspection ^aConfirmed by culture ^bModern system ^cExtensive system ^dIntra-urban system

weight loss, etc.), slaughterhouse seizures/condemnations, and the added cost of processing tuberculous carcasses. Bovine TB also constitutes an obstacle to access the lucrative international markets because of the restrictions on trade with livestock and animal products from BTB-infected countries.

During the course of recent decades, BTB was regularly diagnosed in Burkina Faso (Table 11.1), and it remains a major animal health problem.

Based on the presence of tuberculous lesions, from which mycobacteria were isolated, observed during meat inspection in slaughterhouses in the two largest cities in Burkina Faso (i.e., Bobo-Dioulasso and Ouagadougou), its prevalence in 2014 was estimated to be 6.8% (Tarnagda et al. 2014). This observation has a wider implication because it indicates that BTB is widespread in Burkina Faso, as cattle slaughtered in these two slaughterhouses not only originate from neighboring villages but also from the other main cattle production areas in the country (Sanou et al. 2014). These two abattoirs receive beef cattle from all over the country and provide meat to the two largest cities in Burkina Faso, and processes carcasses for export.

11.2