Killing bacteria can be a challenge in some cases. In almost any case I can think of, bleach would be very effective. It can pretty much destroy anything organic. The problem with using this on wood is twofold. First, too strong and/or too long an exposure will hurt the wood itself. Second, the wood absorbs water, so it takes an effort to get the chlorine to evaporate completely. I am hesitant to suggest the standard bleaching technique.
The issue I see here is knowing what will kill these specific bacteria. I can think of a few things that might work but I can not guarantee any of them for sure:
1. Heat- either boiling or baking in an oven might work.
2. Cold - freezing also might work.
3. If these bacteria were more susceptible to antibiotics, then a good bath in a very strong dose might also work. Perhaps a combination of gram neg. and gram pos. antibiotics might work.
The problem is I have no idea if the bacteria here can be killed by heat, freezing or even what antibiotic should work the best. I do not know how the bacteria reproduce either. It was believed that they do not produce spores and that they cannot survive heat in this article, but I cannot tell you how accurate it is
https
/microbiologybytes.wordpress.com/2010/01/27/do-mycobacteria-produce-endospores/ I can findother recent research which suggests they do form spores. The reason this matters is that it is much easier to kill a live bacteria than a spore.
My best guess here is heat would be the best option since I did discover this:
Mycobacterium ulcerans and Mycobacterium marinum are closely related pathogens which share an aquatic environment. The pathogenesis of these organisms in humans is limited by their inability to grow above 35°C.
from
http/iai.asm.org/content/74/11/6037.full
The problem is the cessation of reproduction is not enough, the heat must be sufficient to kill the bacteria and any spores, if they form them. So you would be taking your best guess as to what temp. is needed to kill them. My guess, is that boiling temperatures may do the trick. I would be a bit worried about baking the wood as this might actually burn it or otherwise damage it. After you boil the wood and it has dried out (hurry drying in an oven using lower temps than would harm it but which accelerate evaporation), you can then freeze it for a while as well. Drying out, big heat and freezing are all things that are known to kill many bacteria. The odds are this triple whammy would do the trick, but I cannot guarantee this.
If the wood in question is not something special that you really want to keep, the 100% safest bet would be to replace it. What we need here is a microbiologist who is familiar with Mycobacteria to be 100% certain.
