The bovine farming constitutes an economic and social activity of great importance for the State of Rio Grande do Norte, contributing for the creation of jobs and generation of income. However, factors related to the low technification of the activity on the part of the producers, the occurrence of a wide and intense drought in the last years and the presence of infectious diseases have caused significant damages to the breeders of animals in the State. Infectious diseases include tuberculosis, which is a zoonotic infection caused by Mycobacterium bovis, the primary host of which is cattle, but several domestic and wild mammal species, including humans, are also susceptible. The objective of the study was to determine the occurrence of tuberculosis in bovine slaughtered in two public slaughterhouses of the intermediate geographic region of Caicó, State of Rio Grande do Norte. Between November 2017 and August 2018, a total of 11,616 bovine carcasses underwent routine post-mortem inspection, with lesions suggestive of tuberculosis in one animal (0.009%). Samples of tissues located in the lung, heart and spleen were submitted to bacteriological culture and molecular diagnosis
