title: Mycobacterium bovis infection at the interface between domestic and wild animals in Zambia.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  In Zambia, the presence of bovine tuberculosis in both wild and domestic animals has long been acknowledged and mutual transmission between them has been predicted without any direct evidence. Elucidation of the circulating Mycobacterium bovis strains at wild and domestic animals interphase area in Zambia, where bovine tuberculosis was diagnosed in wildlife seemed to be important.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A PCR identified 15 and 37 M. bovis isolates from lechwe and cattle, respectively. Spoligotype analysis revealed that M. bovis strains from lechwe and cattle in Kafue basin clustered into a major node SB0120, where isolates outside the Kafue basin clustered into different nodes of SB0131 and SB0948. The comparatively higher variety of strains in cattle compared to lechwe elucidated by Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Units-Variable Number Tandem Repeats analyses are consistent with cattle being the probable source of M. bovis in wild and domestic animals interphase area in Zambia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  These results provide strong evidence of M. bovis strains transfer between cattle and lechwe, with the latter having developed into a sylvatic reservoir host.
authors.affiliation: School of Veterinary Medicine, University of Zambia, P, O, Box 32379, Lusaka, Zambia. mudenda68@yahoo.com
authors.forename: Mudenda B
authors.initials: MB
authors.lastname: Hang'ombe
authors.forename: Musso
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Munyeme
authors.forename: Chie
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Nakajima
authors.forename: Yukari
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fukushima
authors.forename: Haruka
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Suzuki
authors.forename: Wigganson
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Matandiko
authors.forename: Akihiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ishii
authors.forename: Aaron S
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Mweene
authors.forename: Yasuhiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic; D000835:Animals, Wild; D000866:Antelopes; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D009163:Mycobacterium bovis / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary; D014380:Tuberculosis, Bovine / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D015024:Zambia / Q000453:epidemiology