Apoptosis is a process that occurs normally in tissues. It is characterized by morphological changes in the cell. The species of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex induce this phenomenon; In the bovine model, it was demonstrated that both Mycobacterium bovis and its protein extracts induce apoptosis independently of the activation of caspases; however, the identity of the proteins in the protein extracts is unknown. In this study we report that, through molecular weight exclusion chromatography, protein fractions with the capacity to induce DNA fragmentation in bovine macrophages were obtained independently of the activation of caspase 3. Likewise, through liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) the presence of three candidates responsible for the biological activity was identified: MPB70, MPB83 and 60 kDa chaperonin