Tuberculosis (TB) is defined as a chronic infection in both human and cattle hosts and many subclinical cases remain undetected. After the pathogen is inhaled by a host, phagocyted bacilli can persist inside macrophages surviving intracellularly. Hosts develop granulomatous lesions in the lungs or lymph nodes, limiting infection. However, bacilli become persister cells. Immunological diagnosis of TB is performed basically by routine tuberculin skin test (TST), and in some cases, by ancillary interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA). The concept of human latent TB infection (LTBI) by M. tuberculosis is recognized in cohorts without symptoms by routine clinical diagnostic tests, and nowadays IGRA tests are used to confirm LTBI with either active or latent specific antigens of M. tuberculosis. On the other hand, dormant infection in cattle by M. bovis has not been described by TST or IGRA testing as complications occur by cross-reactive immune responses to homolog antigens of environmental mycobacteria or a false-negative test by anergic states of a wained bovine immunity, evidencing the need for deciphering more specific biomarkers by new-generation platforms of analysis for detection of M. bovis dormant infection. The study and description of bovine latent TB infection (boLTBI) would permit the recognition of hidden animal infection with an increase in the sensitivity of routine tests for an accurate estimation of infected dairy cattle. Evidence of immunological and experimental analysis of LTBI should be taken into account to improve the study and the description of the still neglected boLTBI.

结核病 (TB) 被定义为人类和牛宿主的慢性感染，许多亚临床病例仍未被发现。病原体被宿主吸入后，吞噬细胞的杆菌可以持续存在于巨噬细胞内，在细胞内存活。宿主在肺部或淋巴结出现肉芽肿病变，限制感染。然而，杆菌变成了持久细胞。结核病的免疫学诊断主要通过常规结核菌素皮肤试验（TST）进行，在某些情况下，通过辅助干扰素-γ释放试验（IGRA）进行。结核分枝杆菌感染人类潜伏性结核感染 (LTBI) 的概念在常规临床诊断测试中在没有症状的人群中得到认可，现在 IGRA 测试用于确认具有结核分枝杆菌活性或潜伏特异抗原的 LTBI. 另一方面，由于对环境分枝杆菌同源抗原的交叉反应性免疫反应或因无能状态的牛无反应性测试而发生的并发症，TST 或 IGRA 测试并未描述牛分枝杆菌对牛的休眠感染。免疫，证明需要通过新一代分析平台来破译更具体的生物标志物以检测牛分枝杆菌休眠感染。牛潜伏性结核感染 (boLTBI) 的研究和描述将允许识别隐藏的动物感染，增加常规测试的敏感性，以准确估计受感染的奶牛。应考虑 LTBI 的免疫学和实验分析证据，以改进对仍然被忽视的 boLTBI 的研究和描述。