Tuberculosis remains as the world’s biggest threat. In 2014, human tuberculosis
ranked as a major infectious disease by the first time, overcoming HIV death rates.
Bovine tuberculosis is a chronic disease of global distribution that affects animals
and can be transmitted to humans by the consumption of raw milk, representing a
serious public health concern. Despite the efforts of different countries to control
and eradicate bovine tuberculosis, the high negative economic impact on meat and milk
production chains remains, given the decreased production efficiency (approximately
25%), the high number of condemned carcasses, and increased animal culling rates.
This scenario has motivated the establishment of official programs based on
regulations and diagnostic procedures. Although Mycobacterium
tuberculosis and Mycobacterium bovis are the major
pathogenic species to humans and bovines, respectively, nontuberculous mycobacteria
within the Mycobacterium genus have become increasingly important in
recent decades due to human infections, including the ones that occur in
immunocompetent people. Diagnosis of mycobacteria can be performed by microbiological
culture from tissue samples (lymph nodes, lungs) and secretions (sputum, milk). In
general, these pathogens demand special nutrient requirements for isolation/growth,
and the use of selective and rich culture media. Indeed, within these genera,
mycobacteria are classified as either fast- or slow-growth microorganisms. Regarding
the latter ones, incubation times can vary from 45 to 90 days. Although
microbiological culture is still considered the gold standard method for diagnosis,
molecular approaches have been increasingly used. We describe here an overview of the
diagnosis of Mycobacterium species in bovine milk.