Ready Experimental Translocation of Mycobacterium canettii Yields Pulmonary Tuberculosis.

Abstract

, which has a smooth colony morphology, is the tuberculous organism retaining the most genetic traits from the putative last common ancestor of the rough-morphologycomplex. To explore whethercan infect individuals by the oral route, mice were fed phosphate-buffered saline or 10mycobacteria and sacrificed over a 28-day experiment. While nowas detected in negative controls,-infected mice yielded granuloma-like lesions for 4/4 lungs at days 14 and 28 postinoculation (p.i.) and positive PCR detection offor 5/8 mesenteric lymph nodes at days 1 and 3 p.i. and 5/6 pooled stools collected from day 1 to day 28 p.i. Smoothcolonies grew from 68% of lungs and 36% of spleens and cervical lymph nodes but fewer than 20% of axillary lymph nodes, livers, brown fat samples, kidneys, or blood samples throughout the 28-day experiment. Ready translocation in mice after digestive tract challenge demonstrates the potential of ingestedorganisms to relocate to distant organs and lungs. The demonstration of this relocation supports the possibility that populations may be infected by environmental.