Bovine tuberculosis in Spain, is it really the final countdown?

Abstract

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a severe zoonotic disease that has major impacts on both health and the economy, and which has been subjected to specific eradication programmes in many countries for decades. This manuscript highlights the relevance of this disease in the context of the European Union (EU) and summarizes the epidemiological situation and the main tools (e.g. antemortem diagnostic tests, slaughterhouse surveillance, laboratories, comprehensive databases, etc.) used to control and eradicate bTB in the various EU countries with a focus on the situation in Spain. A comprehensive description of the specific bTB epidemiological situation in Spain is provided, together with an assessment of the evolution of different epidemiological indicators throughout the last decades. Moreover, the main features of the Spanish bTB eradication programme and its control tools are described, along with the studies carried out in Spain that have allowed the updating of and improvement to the programme over the years with the aim of eradication, which has been established for 2030.