During 1997 and 1998, a survey of Iberian carnivores was conducted to study the epidemiology of bovine tuberculosis in the Doñana National Park and surrounding areas in southwestern Spain. Post-mortem examinations were done on seven red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), two Egyptian mongoose (Herpestes ichneumon), one weasel (Mustela nivalis), two genets (Genetta genetta), one Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus)...

Bovine tuberculosis, a chronic infection in cattle caused by Mycobacterium bovis, remains an economic and public health problem for several countries. Due to its economic impact on international trade, contagious nature, and implications for human health, global programs to eradicate the disease were implemented worldwide. Those programs are based on slaughtering PPD-reactive animals. Despite t...

The bovine tuberculosis eradication programmes in many of the industrially developed countries have been amongst the most effective control measures ever mounted against any bacterial disease. In Great Britain, for example, the percentage of cattle infected with the bovine tubercle bacillus, Mycobacterium bovis, dropped from around 18% in 1945 to 0.06% in 1965. The impact of such control measur...

BACKGROUND Bovine tuberculosis (bTB), caused by Mycobacterium bovis, is a debilitating disease of cattle. Ethiopia has one of the largest cattle populations in the world, with an economy highly dependent on its livestock. Furthermore, Ethiopia has one of the highest incidence rates of human extrapulmonary TB in the world, a clinical presentation that is often associated with transmission of M. ...

The ?1 presence of bovine tuberculosis (TB) in cattle can negatively impact a state’s economy and cattle industry. In Michigan, USA, wild white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) are a reservoir for reinfecting cattle herds. Although direct TB transmission between deer and cattle is rare, infected deer may contaminate cattle feed. To mitigate this risk, we designed and evaluated a deer-resist...

Environmental contamination with Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC) has been considered crucial for bovine tuberculosis persistence in multi-host-pathogen systems. However, MTC contamination has been difficult to detect due to methodological issues. In an attempt to overcome this limitation we developed an improved protocol for the detection of MTC DNA. MTC DNA concentration was estimated...

Antemortem tests for bovine tuberculosis (bTB) currently used in the US measure cell-mediated immune responses against Mycobacterium bovis. Postmortem tests for bTB rely on observation of gross and histologic lesions of bTB, followed by bacterial isolation or molecular diagnostics. Cumulative data from the state of Michigan indicates that 98 to 99% of cattle that react positively in antemortem ...

Tuberculosis in cattle remains a major zoonotic and economic problem in many countries. The standard diagnostic assay for bovine tuberculosis, the intradermal tuberculin test, has low accuracy. Therefore, alternative immunodiagnostic methods, such as serological assays, are needed for detection of infected animals. Development of an accurate serodiagnostic test requires a detailed understanding...

Mycobacterial species fill a wide variety of evolutionary niches. The most vigorously studied member of the genus is Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of human tuberculosis (13). M. tuberculosis was responsible for an estimated 1.6 million deaths worldwide in 2002, making it second to only HIV in mortality attributed to an infectious disease (2). Mycobacterium bovis and Mycobacter...