AN OUTBREAK OF TUBERCULOSIS IN A CAPTIVE HERD OF ARABIAN ORYX (ORYX LEUCORYX) - DIAGNOSIS AND MONITORING

An outbreak of tuberculosis induced a mortality of 25 per cent in a ca ptive herd of Arabian oryx (Oryx leucoryx). The diagnostic screening t ests used on live animals included the comparative skin test,indirect and comparative ELISA tests and lymphocyte transformation tests. Diffi culties in the interpretation of these tests stemmed principally from the facts that false negatives and false positives were encountered an d that the threshold of positivity was difficult to establish with the ELISA test. The presence of other mycobacterial infections in the env ironment was almost certainly a complicating factor.