Antibodies to mycobacteria in healthy and tuberculous badgers from two English counties

Sera obtained from 2 groups of badgers removed in bovine tuberculosis control operations have been examined for antibodies to 11 species of mycobacteria. From animals without post mortem evidence of tuberculosis, levels of antibodies to mycobacteria were found to increase with age, and different patterns of antibodies were found in animals coming from 2 different places. Some animals (5 out of 60) without evidence of progressive infection had antibodies suggesting contact with tubercle bacilli. Animals found to have tuberculosis at post mortem had increased levels of antibody to common mycobacterial antigen, as do humans with that disease. Only 2 of the 12 tuberculous animals had markedly more antibody binding to Tuberculin than to the other reagents. There was no evidence of greater specificity of antibody binding than was shown by sera of healthy badgers. The suggestion is made that contact with environmental mycobacteria might be a major factor determining distribution of tuberculosis amongst badgers.