Naturally infected animals presenting with typical BU lesions have so far only been described in Australia and there only in one major endemic focus, the central coastal Victoria close to Melbourne. Between 1980 and 1985, 11 M. ulcerans positive koalas (Phascolarctos cinereus) in a population of approximately 200 koalas on Raymond Island were described as having ulcers on the face, forearm, rump, groin or foot pad [1, 2]. More recently, examination of common ringtail (Pseudocheirus peregrinus)

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... nd common brushtail (Trichosurus vulpecula) possums from Point Lonesdale, a small BU endemic region with a recent human outbreak, revealed that 38% of the analyzed ringtail possums and 24% of the brushtail possums had laboratory-confirmed M. ulcerans skin lesions and/or their feces tested positive for M. ulcerans DNA by PCR. Lesions were found on tails, toes, feet and noses with the majority occurring on the tail [3]. Another study by O'Brien et al. showed that M. ulcerans bacteria were present in possum lesions and from 90% of the animals with lesions, positive cultures could be obtained [4]. The high number of possums with skin lesions suggests that possums may represent an animal reservoir for M. ulcerans in south-eastern Australia [3-5]. Sporadically, M. ulcerans positive lesions were also diagnosed in domesticated animals like dogs [6], a cat [7], horses [8] and alpacas [9] . In the dogs, lesions were found on the feet, legs and the rump and diagnosis was done by IS2404 real-time PCR (qPCR). Molecular typing in three animals confirmed that the infection was caused by disease-causing human strains [6] . The cat presented with a lesion on the nose and acid fast bacilli (AFB) staining as well as molecular methods confirmed the infection with M. ulcerans [7] . Despite considerable effort, several studies conducted in Africa were not able to corroborate the findings from Australia [10] [11] [12] .