title: Genotyping of Brucella melitensis and Brucella abortus strains currently circulating in Xinjiang, China.
abstract: Brucellosis is a well-known zoonotic disease that can cause severe economic and healthcare losses. Xinjiang, one of the biggest livestock husbandry sectors in China, has gone through increasing incidence of brucellosis in cattle and small ruminants recently. In this paper, 50 B. melitensis strains and 9 B. abortus strains collected from across Xinjiang area (from 2010 to 2015) were genotyped using multiple locus variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) analysis (MLVA) and multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). Based on 8 loci (MLVA-8), 50 B. melitensis strains were classified into three genotypes. Genotypes 42 (n=38, 76%) and 63 (n=11, 22%) were part of the East Mediterranean group, and one genotype with pattern of 1-5-3-13-2-4-3-2 represents a single-locus variant from genotype 63. MLVA-16 resolved 50 B. melitensis strains into 28 genotypes, of which 15 are unique to Xinjiang and 10 are in common with those in adjacent country Kazakhstan and neighboring provinces of China. Minimum Spanning Tree (MST) analysis implies that B. melitensis strains collected from across Kazakhstan, Xinjiang and China areas may share a common origin. Nine B. abortus strains were sorted into three genotypes by MLVA-8, genotypes 36 (n=7, 77.8%), 86 (n=1, 11.1%) and a new genotype with pattern of 4-5-3-13-2-2-3-1. Each B. abortus strain showed distinct MLVA-16 genotypes, suggesting that B. abortus species may possess more genetic diversity than B. melitensis. Using MLST, most B. melitensis strains (n=49) were identified as sequence type ST8, and most B. abortus strains (n=8) were recognized as ST2. Two new sequence types, ST37 and ST38, represented by single strain from B. melitensis and B. abortus species respectively, were also detected in this study. These results could facilitate the pathogen surveillance in the forthcoming eradication programs and serve as a guide in source tracking in case of new outbreaks occur.
authors: Laboratory of Zoonoses, China Animal Health and Epidemiology Center, MOA, Qingdao, China.
authors: Ming-Jun
authors: MJ
authors: Sun
authors: Laboratory of Zoonoses, China Animal Health and Epidemiology Center, MOA, Qingdao, China.
authors: Dong-Dong
authors: DD
authors: Di
authors: Second Middle School of Xinjiang Production and Construction Cops, Urumqi, China.
authors: Yan
authors: Y
authors: Li
authors: Laboratory of Zoonoses, China Animal Health and Epidemiology Center, MOA, Qingdao, China.
authors: Zhi-Cheng
authors: ZC
authors: Zhang
authors: Xinjiang Center of Animal Disease Control, Urumqi, China.
authors: Hao
authors: H
authors: Yan
authors: Laboratory of Zoonoses, China Animal Health and Epidemiology Center, MOA, Qingdao, China.
authors: Li-Li
authors: LL
authors: Tian
authors: Laboratory of Zoonoses, China Animal Health and Epidemiology Center, MOA, Qingdao, China.
authors: Zhi-Gang
authors: ZG
authors: Jing
authors: Xinjiang Center of Animal Disease Control, Urumqi, China.
authors: Jin-Ping
authors: JP
authors: Li
authors: State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China. Electronic address: jianghai@icdc.cn.
authors: Hai
authors: H
authors: Jiang
authors: Laboratory of Zoonoses, China Animal Health and Epidemiology Center, MOA, Qingdao, China. Electronic address: fanweixing@cahec.cn.
authors: Wei-Xing
authors: WX
authors: Fan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002003:Brucella abortus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D017347:Brucella melitensis / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D002006:Brucellosis / Q000662:veterinary*; D002007:Brucellosis, Bovine / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D002417:Cattle; D002681:China / Q000453:epidemiology; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D062306:Geography, Medical; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D010802:Phylogeny; D015047:Zoonoses
keywords: Brucella abortus; Brucella melitensis; Multi-locus sequence typing (MLST); Multiple locus variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) analysis (MLVA); Xinjiang of China