Joseph over at Immunoblogging has two posts on Mycobacterium bovis and gives a potential answer to Dave S.'s question here. In post one, Joseph notes (after the fold):
It's interesting to note that Mycobacterium bovis, which infects farmed animals dates back roughly to the time we domesticated animals proving that for a change, we gave one of our pathogens to an animal and not the other way around.
In part two, Joseph discusses mycobacteria in general, and why M. bovis is a threat to farm economies.
Part three discusses the role badgers play (or don't) in the transmission of M. bovis to cattle.
More installments to come--I'll update when they're published.
Image from http://www.neverwhere.org/~steve/graphics/badgers/badger_taxid.jpg
- Log in to post comments
More like this
Tuberculosis in humans is most commonly caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, a slow-growing, waxy, rod-shaped bacterium. Transmitted primarily via the air when an infected individual coughs or sneezes, it's estimated that a third of the world is infected with this agent, which causes…
Student guest post by Jack Hamersky
After successfully completing a job interview I had the opportunity to take the next step in my employment process: taking a Tuberculosis or TB test. I have received the test before but never really understood the point of testing for a disease no one ever sees…
Welcome to Grand Rounds at Aetiology! Grab a cup of joe, take a seat, and enjoy the best of this week's medical blogging. Just make sure to wash your hands when you're done...you never know what's lying around here, between the kids, the dog, and the lab...
First, a programming note. Just a few…
A team of archaeologists working offshore from Haifa, Israel in the Mediterranean has discovered both direct and indirect evidence of human tuberculosis. This is important because, if confirmed, the TB cases date to 3,000 years earlier than expected: The disease should not be in skeletons this…
Mushroom, mushroom.
My girlfriend's 20-month-old niece has acquired a Mycobacterium ssp infection the doc's are referring to as Nontuberculous mycobacterial lymphadenitis. Was a new one for me.
There had to be at least one. :)
Um, that's not a European badger in the photo. This is a "proper" badger.
I'll have to remember to look for Part IV: it could be quite amusing.
Bob
Should be tommorow or wednesday Bob. One of the two and will most likely be dependant on if I decide to write about TLRs instead (for a bit of a change).
I'm not sure how 'amusing' it will end up being however ;)
Heh. Noted. :)
Thanks for the link to Immunoblogging, and to the particular article series.