In this high dose infection model, BCG vaccination afforded a consistent and noteworthy level of protection, with all vaccinated animals showing a significantly reduced disease as determined by every measure of pulmonary disease, namely; lesion counts, stereology and total pathology score; overall disease burden (total gross pathology score); disease dissemination (histology, bacterial culture) and changes in clinical parameters (body weight, anaemia (RBC[Hb]) and inflammatory markers (ESR). The gene discussed is GSTM1; the disease is infection.