Environmental mycobacteria in areas of high and low tuberculosis prevalence in the Islamic Republic of Iran

This research compared the numbers and types of different Mycobacterium species in soil samples taken from 2 areas of Golestan province, Islamic Republic of Iran, 1 with a high prevalence of tuberculosis and 1 with a low prevalence. From 220 samples, 91 grew positive cultures (41.4%) and 161 different strains were diagnosed. The most common species isolated were Mycobacterium fortuitum, M. flavescens and M. chelonae. The frequencies of environmental Mycobacterium in the low-prevalence area were much higher than in the high-prevalence area, perhaps due to different environmental fac-