TY - JOUR T1 - Monitoring of the intra-dermal tuberculosis skin test performed by Belgian field practitioners36550 JF - Res.Vet.Sci. Y1 - 2011 A1 - Humblet,M.F. A1 - Walravens,K. A1 - Salandre,O. A1 - Boschiroli,M.L. A1 - Gilbert,M. A1 - Dirk Berkvens A1 - M. Fauville A1 - Godfroid,J. A1 - Dufey,J. A1 - Raskin,A. A1 - Vanholme,L. A1 - Saegerman,C. KW - 0 KW - a KW - an KW - analysi KW - analysis KW - Animals KW - application KW - article KW - AS KW - at KW - authors KW - Belgian KW - Belgium KW - Cattle KW - Comparison KW - Countries KW - de KW - detection KW - Diagnosis KW - differences KW - disease KW - Diseases KW - electronic KW - epidemiology KW - EVALUATION KW - Faculty KW - Field KW - Flanders KW - Follow KW - global KW - im KW - Impact KW - Infectious KW - International KW - intradermal KW - Intradermal Tests KW - IS KW - journal KW - LEVEL KW - Medicine KW - methods KW - Monitoring KW - Mycobacterium bovis KW - need KW - observed KW - ON KW - performance KW - physiology KW - Practice KW - PRACTICES KW - practitioner KW - Practitioners KW - present KW - Questionnaire KW - Questionnaires KW - region KW - Reproducibility of Results KW - Research KW - Research Support KW - risk KW - SB - IM KW - scale KW - Science KW - Score KW - SKIN KW - study KW - Test KW - Tuberculin Test KW - Tuberculosis KW - Tuberculosis,Bovine KW - Universities KW - university KW - veterinary KW - Veterinary Medicine KW - Wallonia AB - The present study aimed to monitor skin test practices as performed by veterinarian field practitioners in Belgium. For this purpose, an anonymous postal questionnaire was elaborated and dispatched to veterinarians involved in bovine tuberculosis detection. The questionnaire included items focusing on the skin test performance. International experts in the field of bovine tuberculosis were asked to fill the questionnaire and a scoring scale was built as follows: 0 = 'ideal' answer, 1 = acceptable answer, whereas 2 = unacceptable answer. Furthermore, experts were asked to rank the questionnaire's items according to their possible impact on the risk of not detecting reactors. A global score was further calculated for each participant and a comparison of practices was carried out between the two regions of the country, i.e. Wallonia and Flanders. Significant differences were observed between both regions, a harmonization at the country level is thus essential. No veterinarian summed a null score, corresponding to the ideal skin test procedure, which suggests that skin-testing is far from being performed correctly. Field practitioners need to be sensitized to the importance of correctly performing the test. The authors recommend the questionnaire is suitable for application in other countries or regions VL - 91 CP - 2 U1 - 36550 M3 - http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rvsc.2010.12.004 ER -