Clinical Signs and Pathology in Wild and Captive Deer and Elk
Click here to see pictures of tuberculosis lesions in wild deer from Michigan
Bovine tuberculosis is a chronic disease, and small lesions in wild white-tailed deer often are not readily recognized. Abscesses may not be visible to hunters when field dressing wild deer. Indeed, most infected white-tailed deer appear healthy. Affected animals may have yellow to tan, pea-sized nodules in the chest cavity or lungs. Lymph nodes of the head and neck can be swollen and necrotic.
Captive cervids with tuberculosis often appear healthy because infection is localized in one or a few lymph nodes, usually in the head or thorax. Tuberculosis is a chronic, progressive disease that can cause gradual debilitation and is manifest as emaciation, depression, and intolerance to exercise. Because infection often involves the lungs, coughing, nasal discharges, and difficulty breathing can occur in severe cases. In some instances, superficial lymph nodes in the neck will develop large abscesses that may rupture and drain through the skin.
At necropsy, tuberculosis lesions are variable in appearance and size. Subclinically infected animals may have one or a few small necrotic nodules that usually are associated with the lymph nodes of the head and neck or the lungs. More severely infected cervids can have multiple pea-sized nodules or large cheesy or pus-filled masses in the same areas. The classical tubercle, which is firm, white or pale yellow, and gritty when cut, does occur in cervids, but many M. bovis lesions in these animals are filled with pus. In cervids, tuberculous lesions are most often seen in the lymph nodes of the head and neck or in lung tissue; however, lesions can occur throughout the chest cavity, under the skin of the chest, and in the abdominal cavity as well.
(Source of the above text on this page: Field Manual of Wildlife Diseases in the Southeastern United States, 2nd Ed., W.R. Davidson, V.F.Nettles, Southeastern Cooperative Wildlife Disease Study, 1997)

Clinical Signs and Pathology in Cattle
Click here to see pictures of the lungs of a beef cow with bovine TB lesions.
Patterns of infection in cattle are very similar to the above description.