Genotyping methods for Mycobacterium bovis. Review

Abstract

Bovine tuberculosis (BTB) is a zoonotic disease that causes big losses to the livestock industry and represents a risk to public health in many countries. The epidemiology of BTB is quite complex, the bacilli grows very slowly, it can remain in dormancy for long periods of time and affects different animal species, including non-reservoir wildlife. Because of this, international efforts have been focus on developing genotyping techniques for better understand the epidemiology of the disease and trace back sources of infection. Nowadays, genotyping is based on the polymorphism of genetic markers with variation in stability. In this paper, the role of RFLP, spoligotyping and VNTR in genotyping M. bovis is discussed. The possibility of creating national and international dynamic databases of genotypes that support policies to eradicate the disease from cattle is analyzed.