Determining mycobacterial proteins involves adding sample, binding present antigen to capture antibody, which is mycobacterial monoclonal antibody, and detecting biotin conjugated second antibody; and adding streptavidin linked quantum dot

The invention provides use of a technique for detecting mycobacterial proteins using quantum dot (QD) labels. This allows rapid and direct detection of the main mycobacterial pathogens, for example Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTC), M. avium complex (MAV) and M. avium subsp paratuberculosis (MAP), in clinical samples, in a way that is highly specific, very easy to perform, and requires minimum infrastructure and expertise.