Sensitive diagnosis of bovine tuberculosis in a farmed cervid herd with use of an MPB70 protein fluorescence polarization assay

After histopathological examination of a lesion found in a herd member returned a diagnosis of mycobacteriosis, a farmed herd (n = 47) of elk (Cervus elaphus nelsoni) and red deer (C. elaphus elaphus) was investigated for bovine tuberculosis with a battery of antemortem and postmortem diagnostic tests. Every animal was tested with the mid-cervical tuberculin skin test; all 47 had negative results. All of the 16 adult animals and 15 of the 31 calves (approximately 2-years-old) were blood-tested with a lymphocyte stimulation test (LST) and a fluorescence polarization assay (FPA), which detects antibody to the MPB70 protein antigen. At necropsy of the 31 blood-tested animals, tissues were harvested for histopathological examination and culture of mycobacteria. Mycobacterium bovis was isolated from 16 of the 31 animals, and a scotochromogen was also isolated from 1 of the 16 whose tissues yielded M. bovis. Each of these 16 animals, 15 of which were calves, also received a histopathological diagnosis of mycobacteriosis. Other species of mycobacteria, including those belonging to the M. avium and M. terrae complexes, were isolated from an additional 7 animals. The FPA was scored “positive” or “suspect” for 16 animals, 13 (81%) of which were culture-positive for M. bovis. The other 3 animals that were culture-positive for M. bovis had negative FPA results. Of the 3 FPA-positive or FPA-suspect animals that were culture-negative, 2 were suspected to have mycobacteriosis on the basis of the histopathological examination. The 7 animals from which Mycobacterium species other than M. bovis were cultured were all FPA-negative. The only animal with positive LST results was also FPA-positive and culture-positive for M. bovis. The M. bovis isolates had an identical spoligotype pattern, with an octal code of 664073777777600. This is the first report of the isolation and identification of this strain type in Canada.