Current Situation of Environmental Mycobacteria in Raw Milk in Some Egyptian Governorates

Mahrous, Eman; Amer, Ali; El Sawy, El Sayed

doi:10.21608/ejvs.2025.357825.2637

Current Situation of Environmental Mycobacteria in Raw Milk in Some Egyptian Governorates

Articles in Press

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ TB Unit, Bacteriology Department, Animal Health Research Institute, Agriculture Research Centre (ARC), Egypt

² Serology Unit, Animal Health Research Institute, Agriculture Research Centre (ARC), Egypt

10.21608/ejvs.2025.357825.2637

Abstract

In Egypt, raw milk is widely consumed and can serve as a vector for transmitting certain zoonotic diseases. Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) is the most extensively studied group of mycobacterial agents in veterinary microbiology, known for causing tuberculosis in both man and animals, other non-tuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) or environmental mycobacteria are also significant animal pathogens. Our study is directed to detect NTM in raw milk in several Egyptian governorates. Three hundred milk samples were collected from El-Sharqiya, El-Qalyubia, and El-Daqahlia Governorates to examine the presence of NTM. Twenty-two milk samples exhibited bacterial growth on Lowenstein-Jensen and Middlebrook agar media enriched with sodium pyruvate and glycerol. Molecular identification of the bacterial isolates through 16S ribosomal RNA gene PCR confirmed their positivity. We identified five various species of NTM: M. fortuitum, M. kansasii, M. scrofulaceum, M. chelonae, and M. smegmatis, with isolation counts of 27, 18, 12, 9, and 15, respectively. This study highlights that raw milk poses a prospective NTM infection source for animals and humans.

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