Division of Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, Innsbruck Medical University, Innsbruck, Schoepfstrasse 41, 6020 Austria.
Expert Rev Anti Infect Ther. 2014 Dec;12(12):1501-13. doi: 10.1586/14787210.2014.974560. Epub 2014 Oct 27.
Mycobacterium caprae, a member of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, causes tuberculosis (TB) in man and animals. Some features distinguish M. caprae from its epidemiological twin, Mycobacterium bovis: M. caprae is evolutionarily older, accounts for a smaller burden of zoonotic TB and is not globally distributed, but primarily restricted to European countries. M. caprae occurs only in a low proportion of human TB cases and this proportion may even decrease, if progress toward eradication of animal TB in Europe continues. So why bother, if M. caprae is not an enigma for diagnostic TB tests and if resistance against first-line drugs is a rarity with M. caprae? This 'European' pathogen of zoonotic TB asks interesting questions regarding the definition of a species. The latter, seemingly only an academic question, particularly requires and challenges the collaboration between human and veterinary medicine.
分枝杆菌属，结核分枝杆菌复合体的一个成员，在人和动物中引起结核病（TB）。分枝杆菌属 caprae 与其流行病学双胞胎分枝杆菌属 bovis 有一些特征区别：分枝杆菌属 caprae 进化得更早，对动物源性结核病的负担更小，并且没有在全球范围内分布，而是主要局限于欧洲国家。分枝杆菌 caprae 仅出现在人类结核病病例中的一小部分比例中，如果欧洲继续努力根除动物结核病，这一比例甚至可能会下降。如果分枝杆菌 caprae 对诊断结核病测试不是一个谜，并且对一线药物的耐药性很少见，那么为什么还要麻烦呢？这种具有动物源性结核病的“欧洲”病原体对物种的定义提出了有趣的问题。后者看似只是一个学术问题，特别需要并挑战了人类医学和兽医学之间的合作。
