Improved surveillance of zoonotic Mycobacteria through rapid direct detection and genotyping in livestock, wildlife, and their environment from low-resource areas in South Africa

Zoonotic tuberculosis (zTB) in people is now suspected to be more frequently caused by members of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) other than M. bovis. Similarly, environmental non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) like M. avium complex, also appear to be more frequently infecting people in developing countries with a high TB/HIV burden, causing NTM lung disease. The gold-standard diagnostic test for TB is mycobacterial culture and cannot distinguish between MTBC and NTM and it requires long incubation periods. Therefore, I aim to develop rapid culture-independent tests for improved detection directly from specimens collected from livestock from low-resource areas, their environments and neighbouring wildlife. The impact of the study will include: 1) enhanced capacity for improved surveillance, 2) identification of sites where human infection risk is significant to improve detection and interventions, 3) find area where risk of emergence of novel pathogenic Mycobacteria strains is high, and 4) increased awareness.