Two characteristics of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) are particularly relevant for tuberculosis (TB) epidemiology and control, namely the ability of this group of pathogens to survive in the environment and thereby facilitate indirect transmission via water or feed, and the capacity to infect multiple host species including human beings, cattle, wildlife, and domestic animals other than cattle. As a consequence, rather than keeping the focus on certain animal species regarded as maintenance hosts, we postulate that it is time to think of complex and dynamic multi-host MTC maintenance communities where several wild and domestic species and the environment contribute to pathogen maintenance. Regarding the global situation of animal TB, many industrialized countries have reached the Officially Tuberculosis Free status. However, infection of cattle with M. bovis still occurs in most countries around the world. In low- and middle-income countries, human and animal TB infection is endemic and bovine TB control programs are often not implemented because standard TB control through testing and culling, movement control and slaughterhouse inspection is too expensive or ethically unacceptable. In facing increasingly complex epidemiological scenarios, modern integrated disease control should rely on three main pillars: (1) a close involvement of farmers including collaborative decision making, (2) expanding the surveillance and control targets to all three host categories, the environment, and their interactions, and (3) setting up new control schemes or upgrading established ones switching from single tool test and cull approaches to integrated ones including farm biosafety and vaccination.

中文翻译：

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我们能根除动物结核病吗？

结核分枝杆菌复合体 (MTC) 的两个特征与结核病 (TB) 流行病学和控制特别相关，即该组病原体在环境中生存并从而促进通过水或饲料间接传播的能力，以及感染的能力多种宿主物种，包括人类、牛、野生动物和牛以外的家畜。因此，我们不应该把注意力集中在某些被视为维持宿主的动物物种上，而是认为是时候考虑复杂且动态的多宿主 MTC 维持群落，其中一些野生和家养物种以及环境有助于病原体的维持。就全球动物结核病情况而言，许多工业化国家已正式达到无结核病状态。然而，世界上大多数国家仍然存在牛感染牛分枝杆菌的情况。在低收入和中等收入国家，人类和动物结核病感染呈地方性流行，而牛结核病控制计划往往无法实施，因为通过检测和扑杀、流动控制和屠宰场检查进行的标准结核病控制过于昂贵或在道德上不可接受。面对日益复杂的流行病学情况，现代综合疾病控制应依靠三个主要支柱：（1）农民的密切参与，包括协作决策；（2）将监测和控制目标扩大到所有三个宿主类别、环境和环境。 (3) 建立新的控制方案或升级现有的控制方案，从单一工具测试和剔除方法转变为包括农场生物安全和疫苗接种在内的综合方法。