A New Multilocus Sequence Typing Scheme and Its Application for the Characterization ofPhotobacterium damselaesubsp.damselaeAssociated with Mortality in Cetaceans.
Photobacterium damselaesubsp.damselae(PDD) is a known pathogen of fish, humans and marine mammals. In this study, a Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) scheme based on six housekeeping genes (glp, gyrB, metG, pnt, pyrC, andtoxR) was developed to better understand the PDD population structure and used to type 73 PDD isolates from cetaceans, mainly striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba) involved in mortality episodes, and from a few marine chelonians. Five reference ATCC strains were also included in the study. Typing allowed the discrimination of groups of PDD strains isolated from different host species, at different times and from different geographic areas, suggesting that a clonal PDD group may have spread in the Tyrrhenian sea at the time of an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) among cetaceans, mainly striped dolphins, occurred in early 2013 along the Italian western coasts.
General Diagnostic Department, Sede Centrale, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana Rome, Italy.
Patricia
P
Alba
General Diagnostic Department, Sede Centrale, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana Rome, Italy.
Andrea
A
Caprioli
Pathology Department, Sede Centrale, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana Rome, Italy.
Cristiano
C
Cocumelli
General Diagnostic Department, Sede Centrale, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana Rome, Italy.
Angela
A
Ianzano
General Diagnostic Department, Sede Centrale, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana Rome, Italy.
Valentina
V
Donati
Pathology Department, Sede Centrale, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana Rome, Italy.
Francesco
F
Scholl
General Diagnostic Department, Sede Centrale, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana Rome, Italy.
Luigi
L
Sorbara
Sezione di Pisa, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana Pisa, Italy.
Giuliana
G
Terracciano
Sezione di Pisa, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana Pisa, Italy.
Gianluca
G
Fichi
Animal Health Department, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Mezzogiorno Portici, Italy.
Fabio
F
Di Nocera
General Diagnostic Department, Sede Centrale, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana Rome, Italy.
Alessia
A
Franco
General Diagnostic Department, Sede Centrale, Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale del Lazio e della Toscana Rome, Italy.
Antonio
A
Battisti
MLST; Photobacterium damselae; cetaceans; genotyping; infection; phylogeny; zoonoses