A survey of Irish red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) to establish the prevalence of Mycobacterium bovis

2025/03/20 by Denise Murphy, William FitzGerald, Guy McGrath +2 · 1 voice
Medicine · Immunology and Microbiology · #Mycobacterium research and diagnosis #Microbial infections and disease research #Tuberculosis Research and Epidemiology

paper · pdf · doi:10.1186/s13620-025-00295-2

openalex publication_date 2025/03/20 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29

Abstract

Between October 2018 and December 2020, an opportunistic collection of tissues from 218 foxes was undertaken to investigate the prevalence of Mycobacterium bovis (M. bovis) in this species. A pooled sample of lymph nodes, lung and other tissues from each fox, was cultured for the presence of M. bovis. The organism was not isolated from any fox samples, but non-tuberculous mycobacteria were recovered from 20 foxes. These results suggest that it is unlikely that foxes represent a significant wildlife source of M. bovis in Ireland.

Discussions

• New research by Murphy et al at the Dept. of Agriculture, Food & the Marine Laboratories - A survey of Irish red foxes (Vulpes vulpes) to establish the prevalence of Mycobacterium bovis - Irish Vet Jo [bsky, 1 points, 0 comments]

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