background: mycobacterium (m.) bovis is the agent of bovine tuberculosis (tb) in a range of animal species, including humans. recent advances in immunology and the molecular biology of mycobacterium have allowed identification of a large number of antigens with the potential for the development of a new tb vaccine. the esat-6 and cfp-10 proteins of m. bovis are important structural and function...

The Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) includes M. tuberculosis, M. bovis, M. bovis bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG, the vaccine strain), M. africanum, and M. microti. Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes the majority of tuberculosis (TB) cases in humans; however, in several regions of the world, especially in a country with high prevalence of HIV infection, human TB caused by M. bovis may be...

A lipid-based formulation has been developed for oral delivery of Mycobacterium bovis bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine. The formulated M. bovis BCG was fed to BALB/c mice to test for immune responses and protection against M. bovis infection. The immune responses included antigen-specific cytokine responses, spleen cell proliferation, and lymphocyte-mediated macrophage inhibition of M. bov...

Tuberculosis continues to be a worldwide problem for both humans and animals. The development of tests to differentiate between infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis or Mycobacterium bovis and vaccination with M. bovis BCG could greatly assist in the diagnosis of early infection as well as enhance the use of tuberculosis vaccines on a wider scale. Recombinant forms of four major secreted pr...

Using the nitroimidazopyran-based antituberculosis drug PA-824 as a selective agent, transposon-generated Mycobacterium bovis strain BCG (M. bovis) mutants that could not make coenzyme F(420) were identified. Four independent mutants that could not make F(420) or the biosynthesis intermediate FO were examined more closely. These mutants contained transposons inserted in the M. bovis homologue o...

Four nutritionally impaired strains of Mycobacterium bovis produced by illegitimate recombination were tested for their ability to protect guinea pigs against intratracheal challenge with virulent M. bovis. All four strains and M. bovis BCG induced significant levels of protection as measured by the reduced spread of infection to the spleen and liver. In animals vaccinated with BCG or two of th...

The pathogenicity of mycobacterial infections depends on virulence factors that mediate survival inside host macrophages. These virulence factors are generally believed to be specific for pathogenic species and absent or mutated in non-pathogenic strains. The serine/threonine protein kinase G (PknG) mediates survival of mycobacteria within macrophages by blocking lysosomal delivery. Here we des...

Context Tuberculosis (TB) in British cattle caused by Mycobacterium bovis has only sporadically affected companion animals. Between December 2012 and March 2013, seven laboratoryconfirmed cases of M bovis infection in cats were seen at one veterinary clinic in Newbury, Berkshire, UK. Two more cats with suspected M bovis infection were identified in the same time frame. All nine cats were from s...

We report efficient expression of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis gene Rv3881c in Escherichia coli from its M. tuberculosis promoter, attributable to an E. coli consensus Pribnow box and ribosome binding site. The N-terminal sequence of the recombinant E. coli-generated protein was identical to the predicted open reading frame of Rv3881c and transcription of the Rv3881c gene initiated at the sam...

An epidemiological survey for the monitoring of bovine tuberculosis transmission was carried out in western Liguria, a region in northern Italy. Fifteen Mycobacterium bovis strains were isolated from 63 wild boar samples (62 from mandibular lymph nodes and 1 from a liver specimen). Sixteen mediastinal lymph nodes of 16 head of cattle were collected, and 15 Mycobacterium bovis strains were subse...