title: Disease attributed to Mycobacterium chelonae in South African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis).
abstract: The fast-growing nontuberculous mycobacterial species Mycobacterium chelonae was isolated from six captive South African clawed frogs (Xenopus laevis) with chronic weight loss and nonhealing ulcerative skin lesions. Three of the M. chelonae isolates were evaluated to confirm the species identification using polymerase chain reaction restriction analysis. Disease associated with M. chelonae is reported mainly in people and in fish. To our knowledge, this is the first report of disease associated with M. chelonae in a colony of captive Xenopus sp.
authors.affiliation: Department of Comparative Medicine, Stanford University, CA 94305, USA.
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: Green
authors.forename: B D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Lifland
authors.forename: D M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Bouley
authors.forename: B A
authors.initials: BA
authors.lastname: Brown
authors.forename: R J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Wallace
authors.forename: J E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Ferrell
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000830:Animals, Laboratory; D002140:California; D005260:Female; D018482:Muscle, Skeletal / Q000473:pathology; D009165:Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000473:pathology / Q000662:veterinary*; D016926:Mycobacterium chelonae / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D015431:Weight Loss; D014982:Xenopus laevis