01667nas a2200229   4500000000100000008004100001100001400042700001800056700001200074700001500086700001500101700001300116700001900129700001400148700001200162245009800174856007900272300001300351490000600364520105300370022001401423       2015                            d1 aHousman G1 aMalukiewicz J1 aBoere V1 aGrativol A1 aPereira LC1 aSilva IO1 aRuiz-Miranda C1 aTruman RW1 aStone A00aValidation of qPCR Methods for the Detection of Mycobacterium in New World Animal Reservoirs.  uhttp://journals.plos.org/plosntds/article?id=10.1371/journal.pntd.0004198   ae00041980 v93 a<p>Editor's Abstract:</p>

<p>Zoonotic pathogens that cause leprosy (Mycobacterium leprae) and tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, MTBC) continue to impact modern human populations. Therefore, methods able to survey mycobacterial infection in potential animal hosts are necessary for proper evaluation of human exposure threats. Here we tested for mycobacterial-specific single- and multi-copy loci using qPCR. In a trial study in which armadillos were artificially infected with M. leprae, these techniques were specific and sensitive to pathogen detection, while more traditional ELISAs were only specific. These assays were then employed in a case study to detect M. leprae as well as MTBC in wild marmosets. All marmosets were negative for M. leprae DNA, but 14 were positive for the mycobacterial rpoB gene assay. Targeted capture and sequencing of rpoB and other MTBC genes validated the presence of mycobacterial DNA in these samples and revealed that qPCR is useful for identifying mycobacterial-infected animal hosts.</p>
  a1935-2735