Department of Clinical Microbiology, IIS-Fundación Jiménez Díaz, UAM, 28040 Madrid, Spain.
Microbiol Spectr. 2016 Dec;4(6). doi: 10.1128/microbiolspec.TNMI7-0021-2016.
Since its discovery by Theobald Smith, Mycobacterium bovis has been a human pathogen closely related to animal disease. At present, M. bovis tuberculosis is still a problem of importance in many countries and is considered the main cause of zoonotic tuberculosis throughout the world. Recent development of molecular epidemiological tools has helped us to improve our knowledge about transmission patterns of this organism, which causes a disease indistinguishable from that caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Diagnosis and treatment of this mycobacterium are similar to those for conventional tuberculosis, with the important exceptions of constitutive resistance to pyrazinamide and the fact that multidrug-resistant and extremely drug-resistant M. bovis strains have been described. Among other members of this complex, Mycobacterium africanum is the cause of many cases of tuberculosis in West Africa and can be found in other areas mainly in association with immigration. M. bovis BCG is the currently available vaccine for tuberculosis, but it can cause disease in some patients. Other members of the M. tuberculosis complex are mainly animal pathogens with only exceptional cases of human disease, and there are even some strains, like "Mycobacterium canettii," which is a rare human pathogen that could have an important role in the knowledge of the evolution of tuberculosis in the history.
自从 Theobald Smith 发现牛分枝杆菌以来，它一直是一种与动物疾病密切相关的人类病原体。目前，牛分枝杆菌结核病仍然是许多国家的一个重要问题，被认为是全世界人畜共患结核病的主要原因。最近分子流行病学工具的发展帮助我们提高了对这种导致与结核分枝杆菌引起的疾病无法区分的生物体传播模式的认识。这种分枝杆菌的诊断和治疗与常规结核病相似，只有吡嗪酰胺的固有耐药性和多药耐药性及极端耐药性牛分枝杆菌菌株的出现是例外。在该复合体的其他成员中，非洲分枝杆菌是西非许多结核病病例的原因，并且主要在与移民相关的情况下在其他地区发现。牛分枝杆菌卡介苗是目前用于结核病的疫苗，但它可以在一些患者中引起疾病。结核分枝杆菌复合体的其他成员主要是动物病原体，只有极少数情况下会感染人类，甚至还有一些菌株，如“堪萨斯分枝杆菌”，它是一种罕见的人类病原体，在结核病的历史演变知识中可能具有重要作用。
