Isolation of non-cultivable acid-fast bacilli in sphagnum and moss vegetation by foot pad technique in mice.

In the former leprosy-endemic coastal area of Norway, 122 samples of sphagnum and moss vegetation were collected from 6 biotopes and examined for non-cultivable AFB by foot pad inoculation. Of the 759 foot pads examined, 20% contained non-cultivable AFB. A significantly higher frequency was found in a habitat where Sphagnum cuspidatum was preponderant, the sphagnum species from which the maximum yield was obtained. The bacteria were polymorphous, solidly staining AFB, which multiplied in passage in foot pads while they could not be cultivated on the conventional media for mycobacteria. Efforts are continuing to identify these AFB by biochemical methods and by inoculation into nine-banded armadillos.