The History of In Vivo Tuberculin Testing in Bovines: Tuberculosis, a “One Health” Issue
Level 5 - mechanism / opinion, no new human data
Narrative historical review without systematic search or new empirical data (Level 5 by design analogy).
OpenAlex W2797115825 · doi:10.3389/fvets.2018.00059
What was done
The author conducted a narrative review summarizing literature from the late nineteenth century to 2018 regarding the history, development, standardization, and regulatory frameworks of in vivo tuberculin skin testing in cattle.
What was found
The abstract provides no numerical data, sensitivity or specificity figures, or statistical estimates. It outlines the historical reduction of childhood extrapulmonary tuberculosis through milk pasteurization, the evolution of bovine tuberculin skin testing since Koch introduced tuberculin in 1890, and the establishment of international production and performance standards by the WHO, OIE, and EU. It concludes that tuberculin skin tests will likely remain the primary screening tool for farmed livestock for the foreseeable future.
Why it matters
The paper synthesizes the historical and operational rationale for maintaining bovine tuberculosis eradication programs, arguing that control efforts must continue with existing skin test methods rather than waiting for novel diagnostic tools.
Limits
The paper is an unsystematic narrative review with no defined literature search strategy, inclusion criteria, or risk of bias assessment. The abstract reports no empirical data, sample sizes, or quantitative test accuracy metrics.
Cited by
- context In the early 1900s, raw milk was a vector for transmitting tuberculosis.