Journal of Clinical Microbiology publish this investigation article

November 1^st, 2013

Mycobacterium bovis populations in countries with persistent bovine tuberculosis usually show a prevalent spoligotype with a wide geographical distribution. This study applied Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Unit (MIRU) - Variable Number Tandem Repeat (VNTR) typing to a random panel of 115 M. bovis isolates representative of the most frequent spoligotype in the Iberian Peninsula, SB0121. VNTR typing targeted nine loci: ETR-A (alias VNTR2165), ETR-B (VNTR2461), ETR-D (MIRU4, VNTR580), ETR-E (MIRU31, VNTR3192), MIRU26 (VNTR2996), QUB11a (VNTR2163a), QUB11b (VNTR2163b), QUB26 (VNTR4052) and QUB3232 (VNTR3232). We found a high diversity among the studied isolates (discriminatory index D=0.9856) which were split into 65 different MIRU-VNTR types. An alternative MIRU-VNTR short format targeting only the four loci with the highest variability values was found to offer an equivalent discriminatory index. Minimum spanning trees using the MIRU-VNTR data showed the hypothetical evolution of an apparently clonal group. MIRU-VNTR analysis was also applied to isolates of 176 positive animals from 15 farms infected by M. bovis SB0121; in 10 farms it revealed the coexistence of two to five different MIRU types differing in one to six loci which highlights the frequent existence of undetected heterogeneity

Rodriguez-Campos S., Navarro Y., Romero B., de Juan L., Bezos J., Mateos A., Golby P., Smith NH., Hewinson RG., Dominguez L., Garcia de Viedma D. and Aranaz A.

Splitting of a prevalent Mycobacterium bovis spoligotype by Variable Number Tandem Repeat Typing reveals high heterogeneity in an evolving clonal group

Splitting of a prevalent Mycobacterium bovis spoligotype by Variable Number Tandem Repeat Typing reveals high heterogeneity in an evolving clonal group

	Departamento de Sanidad Animal. Facultad de Veterinaria. Universidad Complutense (UCM).
	Servicio de Micobacterias (MYC). Centro de Vigilancia Sanitaria Veterinaria (VISAVET). Universidad Complutense (UCM).
	CEI Campus Moncloa.
	Animal Health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency (AHVLA).
	Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES). Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII).
	Servicio de Microbiología y Enfermedades Infecciosas. Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria Gregorio Marañón (IISGM). Hospital General Universitario Gregorio Marañón. Consejería de Sanidad. Comunidad de Madrid.