• Question: how does bovine tuberculosis effect the lungs?

    Asked by woolfy to Cat on 18 Jun 2011.
    • Photo: Cat O'Connor

      Cat O'Connor answered on 18 Jun 2011:

      Great question woolfy!

      TB is normally transmitted through the air in little aerosolised droplets that get inhaled by another cow. The drop get brought down into the lungs as the cow breaths in, and bugs find themselves a very nice new home in the lungs.

      The bug then starts invading the cells in the lungs and multiplying. And as they do this, they start to kill the cells that they infect and cause lesions, which really looks like little white shiny spots on lungs but are filled with pus! And if the lung keeps getting these lesions being formed on them, the lungs stop working properly and the animal starts to get sick. But this can take many years to get this bad.

      The bug can also infect other parts of the body like the throat and lymph nodes but can travel everywhere using the blood stream.

      I hope this answers your question. Please feel free to comment or send me another question if you want to know more about it!

      Cat

Comments