Melioidosis is an often fatal infectious disease with a protean clinical spectrum, caused by the environmental bacterial pathogen Burkholderia pseudomallei. Although the disease has been reported from some African countries in the past, the present epidemiology of melioidosis in Africa is almost entirely unknown. Therefore, the common view that melioidosis is rare in Africa is not evidence-based. A recent study concludes that large parts of Africa are environmentally suitable for B. pseudomallei. Twenty-four African countries and three countries in the Middle East were predicted to be endemic, but no cases of melioidosis have been reported yet. In this study, we summarize the present fragmentary knowledge on human and animal melioidosis and environmental B. pseudomallei in Africa and the Middle East. We propose that systematic serological studies in man and animals together with environmental investigations on potential B. pseudomallei habitats are needed to identify risk areas for melioidosis. This information can subsequently be used to target raising clinical awareness and the implementation of simple laboratory algorithms for the isolation of B. pseudomallei from clinical specimens. B. pseudomallei was most likely transferred from Asia to the Americas via Africa, which is shown by phylogenetic analyses. More data on the virulence and genomic characteristics of African B. pseudomallei isolates will contribute to a better understanding of the global evolution of the pathogen and will also help to assess potential differences in disease prevalence and outcome.

This cross-sectional study was conducted at the slaughterhouses/slabs of Oudalan and Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, between August and September 2013. It aimed at determining the prevalence of bovine tuberculosis (bTB) suggestive lesions in slaughtered cattle carcasses and to identify and characterize the mycobacteria isolated from these lesions. A thorough postmortem examination was conducted on carcasses of a total of 2165 randomly selected cattle. The overall prevalence of bTB suggestive lesions was 2.7% (58/2165; 95% CI 2.1–3.5%). Due to the low number of positive samples, data were descriptively presented. The lesions were either observed localized in one or a few organs or generalized (i.e., miliary bTB) in 96.6% (n = 57) and 3.4% (n = 2), respectively. The identified mycobacteria were M. bovis (44.4%, n = 20), M. fortuitum (8.9%, n = 4), M. elephantis (6.7%, n = 3), M. brumae (4.4%, n = 2), M. avium (2.2%, n = 1), M. asiaticum (2.2%, n = 1), M. terrae (2.2%, n = 1), and unknown non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) (11.1%, n = 5). Moreover, eight mixed cultures with more than one Mycobacterium species growing were also observed, of which three were M. bovis and M. fortuitum and three were M. bovis and M. elephantis. In conclusion, M. bovis is the predominant causative agent of mycobacterial infections in the study area. Our study has identified a base to broaden the epidemiological knowledge on zoonotic transmission of mycobacteria in Burkina Faso by future studies investigating further samples from humans and animals, including wild animals employing molecular techniques.