Tuberculosis in Man, Dog, and Cat

From the time that Villemin placed the study of tuberculosis on a scientific basis, dogs and cats have contributed much to our knowledge of the disease. While the pathology of tuberculosis in dogs and cats was established at an early stage, the epidemiology of their infection, particularly in relation to man, has remained the subject of speculation. Consideration of the question has been stimulated from time to time by reports of natural incidences, ranging from those of Faulenborg and Plum (1) (quoting Frohner in Berlin, of 0.04 per cent; and Eber, in Dresden, of 2.75 per cent, in the 1890's), to those of Lovell and White (2), of 4.6 per cent in dogs, and (3) 3.6 per cent in cats, in the United Kingdom. The prevalence of tuberculosis in dogs in Glasgow, Scotland, as reported by Hawthorne and associates (4), was 4.5 per cent in 175 dogs submitted for pathologic examination over a period of four months in 1955. This indicated a high general level of infection in that city, where more than 8,000 (11.5 per 1,000) new, active cases of pulmonary tuberculosis were detected among examinees older than 14 years in the Mass Miniature Radiography Campaign of March, 1957 (5).