Zoonotic tuberculosis threatens herders in Tanzania

By Kizito Makoye

ARUSHA, Tanzania (AA) - While the delicacy of raw beef washed down with a bloody milk cocktail may not be to everyone's liking, it is a treat beloved by Maasai pastoralists in Tanzania despite a growing risk of catching a potentially deadly zoonotic disease.

The Maasai, who enjoy drinking raw milk and eat half-cooked meat to sate their appetites, are at risk of contracting bovine tuberculosis, a serious zoonotic disease transmitted to humans from cows, experts warned.

World Tuberculosis Day is observed on March 24 each year to raise public awareness of the global epidemic of tuberculosis and efforts to eliminate the disease.

Each day, over 4,100 people lose their lives to TB, and close to 28,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease, according to the World Health Organization.

Elliot Phiri, a professor of veterinary medicines and biomedical sciences at Tanzania’s Sokoine University of Agriculture, said eating half-cooked meat and drinking unpasteurized milk is potentially harmful.

“One of the greatest safeguards for the Maasai community is to kill dangerous bacteria by boiling the milk before drinking it,” he told Anadolu Agency.

Phiri urged nomadic pastoralists in Ngorongoro Conservation Area – a UNESCO world heritage site known for its human-wildlife coexistence – to always eat properly cooked meat and drink milk that has been pasteurized to kill the germs that can taint it.

Phiri said although the Maasai people use traditional herbs to treat various abdominal ailments, the risk of getting bovine tuberculosis from drinking raw milk is greater, especially for infants, young children, the elderly, pregnant women, and people with a weak immune system.

As an agrarian country with the majority of its people engaging in farming, the East African nation of Tanzania has the continent’s second-largest cattle population, with 33.3 million heads, after Ethiopia.

- Raw milk consumption

While milk offers a huge potential to boost nutrition and improve livelihoods for thousands of people in Tanzania, researchers say it is also associated with an increased risk of transmission of harmful germs causing bovine tuberculosis.

Globally, more than 147,000 people were infected with zoonotic TB in 2016, and 12,500 died, according to World Health Organization data.

While the most common route of bovine tuberculosis transmission to humans is through contaminated food, Phiri said airborne transmission also poses a great risk to people in contact with infected animals or animal products.

Maasai pastoralists, whose culture center around herding cattle, goats, and sheep, heavily rely on animals for meat, milk, and the huge income they earn from selling livestock.

While raw cow milk mixed with fresh blood is a delicacy to any Maasai elder, experts warn the long-held tradition is exposing them to potentially dangerous pathogens.

Phiri said the handling of raw meat and the habit of eating undercooked meat increase the risk of diseases being transmitted from animals to humans.

Although the Maasai people depend on traditional herbs that induce vomiting in humans, believing that doing so helps get rid of deadly bacteria, experts say such remedies only provide temporary relief.

For the semi-nomadic Maasai pastoralists in northern Tanzania, herding underpins life, livelihoods, and cultural identity.

But this cultural identity is increasingly threatened by a combination of the changing weather patterns and emerging zoonotic diseases partly triggered by animal migration, poor handling of raw flesh, drinking unpasteurized milk, and eating undercooked meat.

- Deep-rooted tradition

In many Tanzanian societies, unboiled milk consumption is a deeply rooted cultural habit. Milk is often drunk in its natural form or a fermented form, local residents said.

“Some people believe that boiling or pasteurizing process destroys the quality of milk,” said Edna Naipanoi, a resident of Arusha.

Zoonotic diseases, which jump from animals to humans, are rising and will continue to do so if no action is taken to protect wildlife and preserve the environment, warned Anthony Kissinga of Tanzania’s Ministry of Livestock Development.

Kissinga advised the public to raise their awareness of zoonotic diseases and protect themselves by improving milk and meat hygiene through better abattoir services and inducing behavioral changes around meat sourcing as well as raw meat and milk consumption.

Silima Pokot, a pastoralist in Boma Ng’ombe in Arusha, could not figure out why she was feeling unwell.

“I generally felt very ill, I was losing weight, and everything was going wrong,” she told Anadolu Agency.

Instead of eventually feeling better, the 39-year-old woman grew sicker.

After several months of suffering, she finally discovered the cause – she had bovine tuberculosis which she had contracted by drinking unpasteurized milk.

Pokot said it was exceedingly debilitating and at times she could barely walk on her own.

Usually, tuberculosis is treated with drugs for six to nine months, but Pokot took a long time for treatment at a local district hospital in Arusha.

“The treatment is pretty dreadful, and the drugs simply sap all your strength,” she said, recalling the pain.