Background: Aquatic ecosystems are an important source of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) that can cause different diseases in human. Since culture of mycobacteria needs long-term incubation, fast-growing microorganisms and contaminants in the environment usually prevents the isolation of mycobacteria. Here, we compare different treatment protocols and describe a method that increases the rec...

We analyzed samples from 13,652 patients who had respiratory cultures positive for mycobacteria in Taiwan during 2000-2012 and found that 56.9% were positive for nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM). Whereas annual prevalence of tuberculosis decreased during the study period, prevalence of NTM disease and colonization increased, particularly among older patients and male patients.

Atypical mycobacteria, also known as nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) includes acid-fast bacteria other than Mycobacterium tuberculosis. NTM can be isolated from a variety of environmental sources including water, food products, domestic animals, and soil; human exposure is typically from soil to the oral cavity and respiratory tract. Diagnosis of NTM is suspected in children less than five ye...

A growing number of nontuberculous mycobacteria infection cases, especially those caused by rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM), have been reported in the past decade. Conventional methods for mycobacteria diagnosis are inefficient and easily lead to misdiagnosis. New detection methods, such as gene sequencing, have been reported but are not widely used. The aim of the present case report was to...

AIM The performance of Bruker Biotyper matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) in identifying species of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) in flagged Mycobacteria Growth Indicator Tubes (MGIT)s is unclear. MATERIALS & METHODS A total of 92 sequential MGIT-positive nontuberculous mycobacteria isolates, including Mycobacterium intracellulare, ...

We report a case of corneal ulcer caused by nontuberculous mycobacteria which was confirmed by smear and culture. We attempted a new method for the rapid identification of mycobacteria to the species level on the basis of evaluation by the polymerase chain reaction of the gene encoding. The method is involved with restriction enzyme analysis of PCR product obtained with primers common to all my...

Multiplication of Mycobacteria leprae in the foot­ pads of mice has been reported by Shepard . 1 o The increase has been up to 1 ,000 fold. Other workers like Chatterji4 and BergeP have also reported successful transmission of M. leprae in ra ts and mice by using differen t s trains of animals and different food and technique. Mukherj i 6, 7 has not been able to confirm their works . This work ...

Tap and shower water at two locations in the Netherlands was examined for the presence of rapidly growing nontuberculous mycobacteria. Cultures yielded Mycobacterium peregrinum, M. salmoniphilum, M. llatzerense, M. septicum, and three potentially novel species, a distribution different from that in clinical samples.