Management and Control
In commercial poultry flocks this once common infection has largely been eliminated due to the relatively rapid turnover of populations, together with improved general sanitation. Infected poultry should be destroyed because treatment is ineffective and because not all infected birds will be detected by current testing procedures [1]. In addition, housing facilities should be thoroughly cleaned and disinfected. M. avium is very resistant; it can survive in soil for up to several years, therefore infected dirt-floored farms should have several centimetres of the floor removed and replaced [2].
It is important to prevent the spread of avian tuberculosis via human activities, including activities undertaken to preserve wildlife. For instance, if birds of prey in rehabilitation are fed wild bird carcasses, the latter should be examined for avian tuberculosis before being served, to avoid releasing infected raptors [1]. This is important because infected birds may seem clinically healthy and results of diagnostic tests in live birds are not reliable.
Eradicating the infection in wild bird populations is not possible. In wetlands, habitat manipulation (e.g., drainage and scaring devices) has been used to deny wild birds access to sites where repeated outbreaks have occurred. The idea is to avoid that healthy birds become infected by the bacterium presumed to be highly present in the environment at such sites. Because of the long-term environmental persistence of the causative bacterium, such measures are generally taken for approximately 2 years [1].
The continued persistence of avian tuberculosis as a major cause of avian mortality in zoological collections attests to the difficulty of disease control [1]. Newly introduced birds should be quarantined for 2-3 months [3, 5].