Experimental Mycobacterium bovis infection of cattle: Effect of dose of M. bovis and pregnancy on immune responses and distribution of lesions

Groups of l8-month-old cattle were inoculated intratracheally with 5 X 10⁵ colony forming units (high dose) or 500 colony forming units (low dose) of Mycobacterium bovis to determine an appropriate dose to induce lesions similar to those seen in the natural disease. An additional group of 21–28 weeks pregnant cattle were inoculated with the high dose of M. bovis to determine if pregnancy increased the susceptibility of cattle to M. bovis infection. By 23–24 weeks after challenge, the high dose of M. bovis had induced extensive lung lesions, and tuberculous lesions were observed in the lymph nodes of the head, neck, and thoracic and abdominal cavities. In contrast, the low dose of M. bovis induced predominantly small lesions (< 1 cm diameter) which were localised to the lungs and pulmonary lymph nodes. The lesions induced by the low dose were similar to those seen in the natural disease in cattle. The majority of the high dose group cattle produced strong antibody responses to M. bovis culture filtrate, while only one low dose animal produced a detectable response. All of the M. bovis-inoculated cattle produced strong cellular immune responses to bovine PPD (skin test and interferon-γ responses). Pregnancy did not appear to affect the susceptibility to M. bovis infection, and immune responses of the cattle in this group at the end of the study were similar to those in the high dose non-pregnant group. However, from the first test after calving, the interferon-y responses of peripheral blood cultures to bovine PPD were low compared with the responses prior to calving.