STUDIES ON MYCOBACTERIA ISOLATED FROM SKIN LESION TUBERCULOSIS OF THE BOVINE UDDER

Abstract

From one of five cases of bovine teat lesion of tuberculous nature, a total of 4 strains?of slow-growing atypical mycobacteria were isolated in L6wenstein-Jensen, Smith, andOgawa media at a low temperature of incubation. They produced a yellow pigment in the light and dark. One of them was positive for allantoinase and the others were positivefor both urease and allantoinase.In the agglutination reaction, one strain was differentiated from the other three, butall the strains seemed to belong to the same group, perhaps RUNYONS group II. Furtherstudies may be necessary to determine the mycobacterial species which they belong to.They were non-pathogenic for fowls, rabbits, and guinea pigs, but were slightlypathogenic for mice. An inoculation experiment was carried out on the teat of a cow, but none of the strains were proved to have a definite pathogenic effect.