Trends of Mycobacterium bovis Isolation and First-Line Anti-tuberculosis Drug Susceptibility Profile: A Fifteen-Year Laboratory-Based Surveillance: e0004124

Background Mycobacterium tuberculosis causes the majority of tuberculosis (TB) cases in humans; however, in developing countries, human TB caused by M. bovis may be frequent but undetected. Human TB caused by M. bovis is considered a zoonosis; transmission is mainly through consumption of unpasteurized dairy products, and it is less frequently attributed to animal-to-human or human-to-human contact. We describe the trends of M. bovis isolation from human samples and first-line drug susceptibility during a 15-year period in a referral laboratory located in a tertiary care hospital in Mexico City. Methodology/Principal Findings Data on mycobacterial isolates from human clinical samples were retrieved from the laboratory's database for the 2000-2014 period. Susceptibility to first-line drugs: rifampin, isoniazid, streptomycin (STR) and ethambutol was determined. We identified 1,165 isolates, 73.7% were M. tuberculosis and 26.2%, M. bovis. Among pulmonary samples, 16.6% were M. bovis. The proportion of M. bovis isolates significantly increased from 7.8% in 2000 to 28.4% in 2014 (X2trend, p