Mycobacterium caprae Infection, Spain | CDC EID

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Volume 17, Number 3–March 2011
Dispatch
Mycobacterium caprae Infection in Livestock and Wildlife, Spain
Sabrina Rodríguez, Javier Bezos, Beatriz Romero, Lucía de Juan, Julio Álvarez, Elena Castellanos, Nuria Moya, Francisco Lozano, M. Tariq Javed, José L. Sáez-Llorente, Ernesto Liébana, Ana Mateos, Lucas Domínguez, Alicia Aranaz, and The Spanish Network on Surveillance and Monitoring of Animal Tuberculosis1

Author affiliations: Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Madrid, Spain (S. Rodríguez, J. Bezos, B. Romero, L. de Juan, J. Álvarez, E. Castellanos, N. Moya, F. Lozano, A. Mateos, L. Domínguez, A. Aranaz); University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan (M.T. Javed); Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, y Medio Rural y Marino, Madrid, (J.L. Sáez-Llorente); and European Food Safety Authority, Parma, Italy (E. Liébana)

Suggested citation for this article

Abstract
Mycobacterium caprae is a pathogen that can infect animals and humans. To better understand the epidemiology of M. caprae, we spoligotyped 791 animal isolates. Results suggest infection is widespread in Spain, affecting 6 domestic and wild animal species. The epidemiology is driven by infections in caprids, although the organism has emerged in cattle.

Mycobacterium caprae is a cluster within the M. tuberculosis complex (Technical Appendix [ 142 KB, 7 pages]). This pathogen has been recognized mainly in central Europe, where it has been occasionally isolated from tuberculous lesions from cattle (1–5), pigs (4), red deer (Cervus elaphus) (4,5), and wild boars (Sus scrofa) (3). Its isolation from humans has also been described (3,6); often, a contact with livestock has been suggested as a likely means of transmission (5). To our knowledge, this pathogen has never been isolated outside continental Europe, except from a European patient in Australia (7) and a cow in Algeria (8).

The combination of disease tracing and molecular typing is needed to understand the epidemiology of tuberculosis. This report describes the molecular epidemiology of M. caprae infection in Spain compared with other countries. We characterized M. caprae isolates from goats and other domestic and wild animals by spoligotyping (9). The relative contribution of each animal and its role in animal tuberculosis are discussed.

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Mycobacterium caprae Infection, Spain | CDC EID


Suggested Citation for this Article
Rodríguez S, Bezos J, Romero B, de Juan L, Álvarez J, Castellanos E, et al. Mycobacterium caprae infection in livestock and wildlife, Spain. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2011 Mar [date cited]. http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/17/3/532.htm


DOI: 10.3201/eid1703.100618


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Alicia Aranaz, Facultad de Veterinária, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Departamento de Sanidad Animal, Avda. Puerta de Hierro s/n, Madrid 28040, Spain; email: alaranaz@vet.ucm.es