The strain 3281 was isolated from a 33 year old male, who lived in Hebei province, which is a none-animal-husbandry regionlocated in northern China. The patient worked in a commercial company which was not involved with livestock. The patient had never previously been diagnosed with tuberculosis and there was no known tuberculosis case among his family members or friends. The patient reported a cough and expectorate for less than 3 weeks before he consulted a doctor. The chest X-ray and CT demonstrated sign of pneumonia. Three consecutive sputa were all Acid-Fast Bacilli (AFB) positive while the M. bovis BCG strain was cultured from all of the sputa. Given these reason, we suggested that the M. bovis BCG strain might be the pathogen of this pneumonia patient.
This isolate 3281 belonged to a predominant spoligotype (SB0120) which was frequently reported both among human bovine TB and among cattle. This spoligotype is similar to the spoligotype of the vaccine strain BCG type, and four strains out of the 14 M. bovis strains isolated from cattle in China during 2007 and 2008 had the same spoligotype.