1Núcleo de Biotecnologia, Centro de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico, Universidade Federal de Pelotas,

Bovine tuberculosis is a major infectious disease of the cattle. In this study, 85 M. bovis isolates from 162 lymph nodes, obtained from a herd of cattle on a farm in southern Brazil, were evaluated using spoligotyping and VNTR. The strains were grouped into five clusters and five orphans, showing a heterogenic genetic profile, what could represent diverse geographic origins of the introduced cows and/or the frequent movement of cattle between different properties. Key words: bovine tuberculosis, Mycobacterium bovis, genotyping. Bovine tuberculosis is an endemic disease responsi-ble for significant economic losses related to decreases in the production of meat and milk and reductions in the ex-port of beef products. Mycobacterium bovis, the main caus-ative agent of the disease, has a broad host range, infecting different wild and domestic animals, and occasionally hu-mans (Mignard et al., 2006). An important tool for the control of bovine tuberculo