title: Coxiella burnetii in central Italy: novel genotypes are circulating in cattle and goats.
abstract: Genotyping of bacteria is critical for diagnosis, treatment, and epidemiological surveillance. Coxiella burnetii, the etiological agent of Q fever, has been recognized to have a potential for bioterrorism purposes. Because few serosurveys have been conducted in Italy, there is still limited information about the distribution of this pathogen in natural conditions. In this paper, we describe the genotyping of C. burnetii strains by multispacer sequence typing (MST) detected in cattle and goat farms in the Abruzzi region of Italy. Biological samples (milk, aborted fetus) positive for C. burnetii DNA were sequenced in the spacer regions and compared with those already publicly available ( http://ifr48.timone.univ-mrs.fr/MST_Coxiella/mst/group_detail ). The MST profile of C. burnetii detected in milk samples demonstrated the presence of a new allele, whereas the C. burnetii spacer sequences from fetus and milk goat samples displayed a new allelic combination. The results suggest the circulation of novel genotypes of C. burnetii in Italy.
authors.affiliation: Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale dell'Abruzzo e del Molise "G. Caporale" , Campo Boario, Teramo, Italy .
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Domenico
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Curini
authors.forename: Fabrizio
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: De Massis
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Di Provvido
authors.forename: Massimo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Scacchia
authors.forename: Cesare
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Cammà
mesh_terms: D037881:Aborted Fetus / Q000382:microbiology; D000483:Alleles; D000818:Animals; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques / Q000662:veterinary; D001483:Base Sequence; D002417:Cattle; D016997:Coxiella burnetii / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D021901:DNA, Intergenic / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005260:Female; D005838:Genotype; D005843:Geography; D015511:Goat Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D006041:Goats; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008892:Milk / Q000382:microbiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D011778:Q Fever / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000662:veterinary
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D021901:DNA, Intergenic
keywords: Cattle–Goat; Coxiella burnetii; Genotyping; Italy; Multispacer sequence typing