Technical Abstract: Wildlife reservoirs of Mycobacterium bovis represent serious obstacles to the eradication of tuberculosis in domestic livestock. The cause for many faltering eradication programs is the presence of wildlife reservoirs of M. bovis. One approach in dealing with this wildlife reservoir is to vaccinate deer in order to interrupt transmission. Thirty-five white-tailed deer were assigned to one of three groups; 1 SC doses of 10**7 CFU of M. bovis BCG Pasteur (n=12); 1 SC dose of 10**7 CFU of M. bovis BCG Danish (n=11); or unvaccinated deer (n=12). After vaccination, deer were inoculated intratonsilarly with virulent M. bovis. Lesion severity scores of the medial retropharyngeal lymph node were significantly reduced in vaccinated deer compared to unvaccinated deer. BCG Danish vaccinated deer had fewer lymph node granulomas than BCG Pasteur vaccinates or unvaccinated deer, and most notably, fewer late stage granulomas characterized by coalescent caseonecrotic granulomas containing numerous acid-fast bacilli. Both BCG strain were isolated as late as 250 days after vaccination from deer that were vaccinated but not challenged. In white-tailed deer BCG Danish provides superior protection against challenge with virulent M. bovis.