Genotyping of Bacillus anthracis isolated from Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Anthrax is a serious disease caused by Bacillus anthracis. Humans can become infected by handling products from infected animals, by breathing spores and rarely by eating undercooked meat from infected animals. The genome of B. anthracis is highly monomorphic and thus shows very low DNA sequence variation. We analysed the molecular characteristics of 12 B. anthracis isolates from outbreaks in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which have occurred during the past 10 years along with two vaccine strains. Genotyping system based on variable-number tandem repeat analysis at six loci revealed that six isolates belong to genotype from the A1.a cluster whilst six isolates relate to the B2 cluster, compared to 89 previously described genotypes. The distribution of two evolutionarily distant clusters suggests an introduction of B. anthracis to this area in at least two separate events.
Faculty of Food Technology and Biotechnology, University of Zagreb, Zagreb, Croatia.
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I
Steiner
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I
Račić
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S
Spičić
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B
Habrun
D000818:Animals; D000881:Anthrax / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D001408:Bacillus anthracis / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D017522:Bosnia and Herzegovina / Q000453:epidemiology; D017523:Croatia / Q000453:epidemiology; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D056426:Genetic Loci; D005819:Genetic Markers / Q000235:genetics; D060005:Genotyping Techniques / Q000379:methods; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics*; D058889:Molecular Typing; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D014774:Virulence
D017931:DNA Primers; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D005819:Genetic Markers