title: Within-host evolution of Brucella canis during a canine brucellosis outbreak in a kennel.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Little is currently known about Brucella evolution within the host during infection. The current study is the first to employ fine-scale genotyping on an isolate collection derived from a Brucella canis outbreak. Eight isolates of B. canis, cultured from different tissues of three dogs (female, stud dog, puppy of another female) from a single kennel over three months were genetically characterized with a 15-marker multi-locus, variable-number tandem repeat (VNTR) analysis (MLVA) to assess the genetic relatedness of isolates and potential rapid mutational changes.
  
  
  RESULTS
  MLVA discriminated among the otherwise indistinguishable isolates from different animals and from isolates collected at different time points within each host, with different VNTR alleles being detected at multiple dates and tissue sites. We suspect that all isolates cultured from the female, puppy, and stud dogs originated from the same strain, with subsequent rapid in vivo mutations. However, high mutation rates and apparent in several of the loci prevented making definitive epidemiological relationships among isolates.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This investigation highlights the rapid in vivo genetic mutations of several VNTRs of B. canis over a short time period in the host and the emergence of alternate alleles. However, this work also suggests the challenges of using highly mutable VNTRs to infer epidemiological relationships of strains within a short duration outbreak.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Veterinary Medical Research, Centre for Agricultural Research, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest 1143, Hungária körút 21, Hungary.
authors.forename: Miklós
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gyuranecz
authors.forename: Brandy D
authors.initials: BD
authors.lastname: Rannals
authors.forename: Christina A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Allen
authors.forename: Szilárd
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Jánosi
authors.forename: Paul S
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: Keim
authors.forename: Jeffrey T
authors.initials: JT
authors.lastname: Foster
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D041002:Brucella canis / Q000235:genetics*; D002006:Brucellosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D004196:Disease Outbreaks / Q000662:veterinary; D004283:Dog Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D004285:Dogs; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D006799:Housing, Animal; D006814:Hungary / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D018598:Minisatellite Repeats / Q000235:genetics; D010802:Phylogeny; D060888:Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000662:veterinary