Organisms in the Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC; M. avium, M. intracellulare, and "nonspecific or X" MAC) are emerging pathogens among individual organisms of which significant genetic variability is displayed. The objective of the present study was to evaluate various molecular methods for the rapid and definitive identification of MAC species. Isolates were obtained from both human immunode...

BACKGROUND Mycobacterium chimaera is a recently described species within the Mycobacterium avium complex. Its pathogenicity in respiratory tract infection remains disputed. It has never been isolated during cystic fibrosis respiratory tract infection. CASE PRESENTATION An 11-year-old boy of Asian ethnicity who was born on Réunion Island presented to our hospital with cystic fibrosis after a d...

This study investigated the changes in the major etiologic organisms and clinical phenotypes of nontuberculous mycobacterial lung disease (NTM-LD) over a recent 15-year period in Korea. The increase of number of patients with NTM-LD was primarily due to an increase of Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) lung disease (LD). Among MAC cases, the proportion of M. avium increased compared with M. intr...

Organisms within the Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) may have differential virulence. We compared 33 subjects with MAC pulmonary disease to 75 subjects with a single positive culture without disease. M. avium isolates were significantly more likely to be associated with MAC pulmonary disease (odds ratio = 5.14, 95% confidence interval = 1.25 to 22.73) than M. intracellulare.

BACKGROUND Rabbits are susceptible to infection by different species of the genus Mycobacterium. Particularly, development of specific lesions and isolation of Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium and Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis, both subspecies of the M. avium complex, has been reported in wildlife conditions. Although, rabbit meat production worldwide is 200 million tons per year,...

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis is a pathogen that causes chronic inflammation of the intestine in many animals, including primates, and is implicated in Crohn's disease in humans. It differs from other members of the M. avium complex in having 14-18 copies of IS900 inserted into conserved loci in its genome. In the present study, genomic DNA flanking 14 of these insertions was char...

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis is the causative agent of Johne's disease (JD) in cattle. M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis infects the gastrointestinal tract of calves, localizing and persisting primarily in the distal ileum. A high percentage of cattle exposed to M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis do not develop JD, but the mechanisms by which they resist infection are not understood...

Species identification of nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) is challenging due to the increasing number of identified NTM species and the lack of standardized testing strategies. The objectives of this study were to investigate the distribution of NTM species recovered from respiratory specimens by multigene sequence-based typing and to evaluate the clinical significance of identified species. ...

Tuberculosis can be caused by a number of different, but closely related, bacteria. Members of the tuberculosis complex include Mycobacterium (M.) tuberculosis, M. bovis and M. microti. M. tuberculosis causes over 90% of tuberculosis in man, but rarely infects other mammals, except for dogs. M. bovis is the main cause of tuberculosis in cattle. It can also infect various other mammals, includin...

The cell envelopes of several species of nontuberculous mycobacteria, including the Mycobacterium avium complex, contain glycopeptidolipids (GPLs) as major glycolipid components. GPLs are highly antigenic surface molecules, and their variant oligosaccharides define each serotype of the M. avium complex. In the oligosaccharide portion of GPLs, the fucose residue is one of the major sugar moietie...