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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Animal Disease Center » Infectious Bacterial Diseases Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #270106
Title: Tuberculosis in domestic livestock: pathogenesis, transmission, and vaccination

Author
item Palmer, Mitchell
item Thacker, Tyler
item Waters, Wade

Submitted to: Meeting Proceedings
Publication Type: Proceedings
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/16/2011
Publication Date: 12/7/2011
Citation: Palmer, M.V., Thacker, T.C., Waters, W.R. 2011. Tuberculosis in domestic livestock: pathogenesis, transmission, and vaccination. In: Proceedings of the 2011 American College of Veterinary Pathologists, December 3-7, 2011, Nashville, Tennessee. 2011 CDROM.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: The Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex includes agents such as M. tuberculosis and M. bovis, the cause of tuberculosis in most animals and a zoonotic pathogen. Mycobacterium bovis has one of the broadest host ranges of any pathogen, infecting most mammals, including humans. Models are used to study tuberculosis in both man and animals. The most relevant animal model of human tuberculosis is the non-human primate. However, the bovine calf model offers many of the same advantages as the primate model. Further advantages of the calf model include (1) availability of affordable, age-, gender-, and breed-matched animals throughout the year, (2) size allows full immunologic assessment via frequent collection of large volumes of blood, and (3) provides a feasible means of duration of immunity studies. A double deletion mutant of M. tuberculosis H37Rv, deltaRD1 x panCD mutant (mc**2 6030), was evaluated in parallel with M. bovis BCG in both the calf model and adult Cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis). Immunization of mice with this mutant induces prolonged protective immune responses that promote survival of both wild type and CD4-deficient mice against an aerosol challenge with virulent M. tuberculosis. In both calves and monkeys the vaccine was ineffective. Consequently in this example, responses in mice were not predictive of efficacy in models using natural hosts of infection.