Conference in 31st Annual Congress of the European Society of Mycobacteriology (ESM 2010)

July 4^th, 2010

de Juan L., Rodriguez-Campos S., Romero B., Aranaz A., Bezos J., Castellanos E., Gonzalez S., Saez-LLorente JL., Mateos A. and Dominguez L.

Epidemiological studies based on molecular characterization have allowed a better understanding of several factors as for example transmission between domestic and wildlife animals, animal movement, outbreaks, etc. The Direct Variable Repeat Spacer Oligonucleotide Typing technique or DVR-spoligotyping is based on polymorphism of the chromosomal DR locus, which consists of a variable number of direct repeats (DR) interspersed with nonrepetitive spacers. This technique is specific for bacterial species included in the M. tuberculosis complex and nowadays, this technique is the method of choice for epidemiological studies.
Due to the importance of epidemiological studies in tuberculosis together with the Ministry of the Environment and Rural and Marine Affairs (MARM) we designed a Spanish Database of Animal Mycobacterosis (mycoDB) which includes the national isolates of M. bovis and M. caprae from 1996. The access is restricted to Veterinary Services and Laboratories involved in the National Eradication Program. The access is available at the Veterinary Health Alert Network website (RASVE). The database includes information regarding year of isolation of the strain, animal species and geographical location. All the information is detailed in tables and maps. The database offers three different searches by spoligotype, isolate and maps.
Currently, the database contains 13,731 M. bovis strains grouped in 319 spoligotypes, and 919 M. caprae strains classified in 15 spoligotypes. During the presentation examples of the application of the database in epidemiological studies will be shown at three levels: 1) identification of outbreaks; 2) transmission between domestic and wildlife animals; and 3) impact of bovine tuberculosis in Public Health.
The Spanish Database of Animal Mycobacterosis (mycoDB) is a useful tool for epidemiological studies at a national and international level since a standardized protocol and nomenclature is used. We encourage all countries to centralize all the typing information in a database for surveillance and epidemiological studies purposes

	Servicio de Micobacterias (MYC). Centro de Vigilancia Sanitaria Veterinaria (VISAVET). Universidad Complutense (UCM).
	Departamento de Sanidad Animal. Facultad de Veterinaria. Universidad Complutense (UCM).