title: Novel variant serotype of streptococcus suis isolated from piglets with meningitis.
abstract: Streptococcus suis is an emerging zoonotic pathogen causing severe infections in pigs and humans. In previous studies, 33 serotypes of S. suis have been identified using serum agglutination. Here, we describe a novel S. suis strain, CZ130302, isolated from an outbreak of acute piglet meningitis in eastern China. Strong pathogenicity of meningitis caused by strain CZ130302 was reproduced in the BALB/c mouse model. The strain showed a high fatality rate (8/10), higher than those for known virulent serotype 2 strains P1/7 (1/10) and 9801 (2/10). Cell adhesion assay results with bEnd.3 and HEp2 cells showed that CZ130302 was significantly close to P1/7 and 9801. Both the agglutination test and its complementary test showed that strain CZ130302 had no strong cross-reaction with the other 33 S. suis serotypes. The multiplex PCR assays revealed no specified bands for all four sets used to detect the other 33 serotypes. In addition, genetic analysis of the whole cps gene clusters of all serotypes was performed in this study. The results of comparative genomics showed that the cps gene cluster of CZ130302, which was not previously reported, showed no homology to the gene sequences of the other strains. Especially, the wzy, wzx, and acetyltransferase genes of strain CZ130302 are phylogenetically distinct from strains of the other 33 serotypes. Therefore, this study suggested that strain CZ130302 represents a novel variant serotype of S. suis (designated serotype Chz) which has a high potential to be virulent and associated with meningitis in animals.
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Animal Bacteriology, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China OIE Reference Lab for Swine Streptococcosis, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Zihao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Pan
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Animal Bacteriology, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China OIE Reference Lab for Swine Streptococcosis, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Jiale
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ma
authors.affiliation: OIE Reference Lab for Swine Streptococcosis, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Wenyang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Dong
authors.affiliation: OIE Reference Lab for Swine Streptococcosis, Nanjing, China.
authors.forename: Wenchao
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: China Animal Health and Epidemiology Center, Qingdao, China.
authors.forename: Kaicheng
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Animal Bacteriology, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China OIE Reference Lab for Swine Streptococcosis, Nanjing, China yaohch@njau.edu.cn lucp@njau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Chengping
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.affiliation: Key Lab of Animal Bacteriology, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing Agricultural University, Nanjing, China OIE Reference Lab for Swine Streptococcosis, Nanjing, China yaohch@njau.edu.cn lucp@njau.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Huochun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Yao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002448:Cell Adhesion; D002681:China; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006386:Hemagglutination Tests; D056945:Hep G2 Cells; D022781:Hepatocytes / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D008581:Meningitis / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D051379:Mice; D008807:Mice, Inbred BALB C; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D060885:Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017385:Sequence Homology; D065288:Serogroup; D013290:Streptococcal Infections / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D017011:Streptococcus suis / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000502:physiology; D016019:Survival Analysis; D013552:Swine; D013553:Swine Diseases / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial