Isolation of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis from intestinal mucosa and mesenteric lymph nodes of goats by use of selective Dubos medium

To isolate Mycobacterium paratuberculosis from contaminated material, a selective medium, selective Dubos medium (SDubos), was developed by supplementing conventional Dubos medium (CDubos) with carbenicillin, polymyxin, trimethoprim, and amphotericin B. The intestine and mesenteric lymph nodes of 1,501 goats were cultured in parallel on SDubos and CDubos after decontamination with oxalic acid. The contamination rate was reduced more than 150 times by the use of SDubos. The number of positive specimens (18, or 1.2%), i.e., those which revealed growth of M. paratuberculosis, was too small to evaluate the number of specimens which could have been missed due to contamination on CDubos. However, the number of specimens positive on SDubos (16, or 89%) showed that the antibiotics used were not harmful to M. paratuberculosis.