It had shorter generation time than clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis and presented a unique, characteristic phenolic glycolipid and lipo-oligosaccharide.

In 1998, Pfyffer described abdominal lymphatic TB in a 56-year-old Swiss man with HIV infection who lived in Kenya.

Tuberculosis caused by M. canettii appears to be an emerging disease in the Horn of Africa.

[2][3] A history of a stay to the region should induce the clinician to consider this organism promptly even if the clinical features of TB caused by M. canettii are not specific.

The natural reservoir, host range, and mode of transmission of the organism are still unknown.