Though careful consideration has been placed towards genetic characterization of tubercle bacillus isolates causing disease in humans, those causing disease predominantly among wild and domesticated mammals have received less attention. In contrast to Mycobacterium tuberculosis, whose host range is largely specific to humans, M. bovis and "M bovis-like" organisms infect a broad range of animal ...

Members of the CCp protein family have been previously described to be expressed on gametocytes of apicomplexan Plasmodium parasites. Knocking out Plasmodium CCp genes blocks the development of the parasite in the mosquito vector, making the CCp proteins potential targets for the development of a transmission-blocking vaccine. Apicomplexans Babesia bovis and Babesia bigemina are the causative a...

Mycoplasma bovis is a small, cell wall-less bacterium that contributes to a number of chronic inflammatory diseases in both dairy and feedlot cattle, including mastitis and bronchopneumonia. Numerous reports have implicated M. bovis in the activation of the immune system, while at the same time inhibiting immune cell proliferation. However, it is unknown whether the specific immune-cell populat...

Mycoplasma bovis is a cause of pneumonia, mastitis, arthritis and otitis media in cattle throughout the world. However, despite its clinical significance, there is a paucity of tools to genetically manipulate it, impeding our capacity to further explore the molecular basis of its virulence. To address this limitation, we developed a series of homologous and heterologous replicable plasmids from...

The rabbit model of tuberculosis is attractive because of its pathophysiologic resemblance to the disease in humans. Rabbits are naturally resistant to infection but may manifest cavitary lung lesions. We describe here a novel approach that utilizes presensitization and bronchoscopic inoculation to reliably produce cavities in the rabbit model. With a fixed inoculum of bacilli, we were able to ...

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...

Mycobacterium bovis is the causal agent of bovine tuberculosis, one of the most important diseases currently facing the UK cattle industry. Here, we use high-density whole genome sequencing (WGS) in a defined sub-population of M. bovis in 145 cattle across 66 herd breakdowns to gain insights into local spread and persistence. We show that despite low divergence among isolates, WGS can in princi...

BACKGROUND In sub-Saharan Africa, bovine tuberculosis (bTB) is a potential hazard for animals and humans health. The goal of this study was to improve our understanding of bTB epidemiology in Burkina Faso and especially Mycobacterium bovis transmission within and between the bovine and human populations. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Twenty six M. bovis strains were isolated from 101 cattle ...

BACKGROUND Mycoplasma bovis is an important pathogen causing severe disease outbreaks in cattle farms. Since 2011, there has been an apparent increase in M. bovis outbreaks among Danish dairy cattle herds. The dairy cattle industry performed cross-sectional antibody screening for M. bovis on four occasions, using the indirect BIO K 302 M. bovis enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) (Bio-X, ...

Mycobacterium bovis, the causative agent of bovine tuberculosis (bTB), is a multihost pathogen of public health and veterinary importance. We characterized the M. bovis isolated at the human-livestock-wildlife interface of the Serengeti ecosystem to determine the epidemiology and risk of cross-species transmission between interacting hosts species. DNA was extracted from mycobacterial cultures ...