Project Number: 3625-32000-082-00
Project Type: Appropriated

Start Date: Oct 27, 2006
End Date: Sep 30, 2011

Objective:
1) Characterize the immunopathogenesis of Mycobacterium bovis infection in domestic livestock and wildlife. 2) Develop and evaluate improved tests for diagnosis of M. bovis infection in different animal species. 3) Identify vaccine strategies to elicit protective immunity in cattle and relevant wildlife species.

Approach:
Objective 1 will evaluate tonsilar processing of M. bovis and lesion development using a combination of invitro and in vivo methods and both non-infected and experimentally infected cattle and deer. Objective 2 will utilize blood samples from both naturally and experimentally infected cattle and deer to evaluated test sensitivity as well as normal cattle and deer to evaluate test specificity. Vaccine trials in Objective 3 will be limited to efficacy studies utilizing experimentally infected animals and a combination of quantitative and semi-quantitative analysis to evaluate vaccine efficacy. BSL-2/BSL-2N; Recertified May 11, 2011. IBC #0278 BSL-2/BSL-1N/BSL-3N; Recertified June 13, 2011. IBC #0285A BSL-2, BSL-2N, BSL-3N; Re-certified June 22, 2011. IBC #0294 BSL-2; Re-certified January 10, 2011. IBC #0297 BSL-3; Terminated August 20, 2009. IBC #0298 BSL-3; Recertified August 17, 2010. IBC #0327