Tuberculosis

leedragon

Chameleon Enthusiast
Can human tuberculosis be transmited to chameleons? is there any records of this? I know reptiles have their own type of tuberculosis if I don´t recall incorrectly but can they be suceptive to human version of it?
 
Cant transmit. About the only "mixes" are humans can catch cow TB. But TB stays in the same "animal family".
 
are you a 100 % sure of this?

Very above average sure. If you can even find one study on human TB transmitting to an animal id love to hear about it.

But so far the results are:

Cows can give humans bovine TB, but infected humans cant transmit it to other humans
Birds with Bird TB can "enhance" symptoms in humans with human TB

But every family has there own version of TB, and Jumps are rare, and even if a jump happens, it not transmissible in the new host.
 
Mycobacteria (the bacteria genus that TB (human, cow etc. versions) is a part of) is somewhat host specific as far as actual disease manifestation. However, they can be present in a wide variety of organisms, just won't usually cause clinically apparent infection. There are few records of it jumping between a human to a reptile/amphibian etc. in a clinically relevant way. They are overall opportunistic pathogens though and will survive in various species, but may not form active infections in animals they are not specific to. However, there are known mycobacterial species that can infect reptiles and specifically chameleons as you state above.

I'm curious why you are asking? Most TB (or indeed other mycobacterial infections) infections enter a latency period in immunocompetent hosts wherein they are basically walled off by the body, making transmission unlikely. Is someone sick with active TB around chameleons?
 
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