Diagnosing and Managing Tuberculosis in African Wildlife

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) occurs endemically in domestic cattle as well as in wildlife in several major Southern African conservation areas. Diagnosis of bTB often is confounded by concurrent infections with non-tuberculous types of mycobacteria. Researchers will investigate how exposure to non tuberculous types of mycobacteria is able to cause false-positive results in currently available bTB diagnostic tests. Understanding cross-reactive immune responses in animals to tuberculosis and non-tuberculosis species of mycobacteria will lay the groundwork for defining more specific diagnostic test reagents in an effort to control bTB infections in African wildlife.