Investigation published in Veterinary Microbiology

April 15^th, 1998

The combination of conventional investigation and DNA fingerprinting is yielding important insights into the epidemiology of Mycobacterium bovis infections. Various genetic markers used in restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) have recently been exploited for fingerprinting of M. bovis isolates. The newly developed spacer oligonucleotide typing aimed to investigate the polymorphism of M. tuberculosis in the DR locus, has also been applied to the molecular typing of M. bovis isolates. This work compared the performance of the insertion sequence (IS) IS6110, IS1081 and the genetic elements polymorphic G + C-rich repeat (PGRS) and direct repeat (DR) used in RFLP analysis with spoligotyping using a group of 128 Spanish M. bovis isolates. In this study, the most sensitive technique for identifying polymorphism in M. bovis was PGRS-RFLP, closely followed by IS6110-RFLP. We propose several schemes for fingerprinting of these isolates, however, the clear geographical variations found by different authors makes the study of each local situation indispensable. An international consensus in the methods used would be desirable for efficient interlaboratory comparison of strains

Aranaz A., Liebana E., Mateos A., Dominguez L. and Cousins DV.

Restriction fragment length polymorphism and spacer oligonucleotide typing: a comparative analysis of fingerprinting strategies for Mycobacterium bovis

Restriction fragment length polymorphism and spacer oligonucleotide typing: a comparative analysis of fingerprinting strategies for Mycobacterium bovis

	Departamento de Sanidad Animal. Facultad de Veterinaria. Universidad Complutense (UCM).
	Servicio de Micobacterias (MYC). Centro de Vigilancia Sanitaria Veterinaria (VISAVET). Universidad Complutense (UCM).
	Laboratory for Bovine Tuberculosis. Animal Health Laboratories (AHL). Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia (DAFWA).