title: Streptococcus agalactiae Serotype IV in Humans and Cattle, Northern Europe1.
abstract: Streptococcus agalactiae is an emerging pathogen of nonpregnant human adults worldwide and a reemerging pathogen of dairy cattle in parts of Europe. To learn more about interspecies transmission of this bacterium, we compared contemporaneously collected isolates from humans and cattle in Finland and Sweden. Multilocus sequence typing identified 5 sequence types (STs) (ST1, 8, 12, 23, and 196) shared across the 2 host species, suggesting possible interspecies transmission. More than 54% of the isolates belonged to those STs. Molecular serotyping and pilus island typing of those isolates did not differentiate between populations isolated from different host species. Isolates from humans and cattle differed in lactose fermentation, which is encoded on the accessory genome and represents an adaptation to the bovine mammary gland. Serotype IV-ST196 isolates were obtained from multiple dairy herds in both countries. Cattle may constitute a previously unknown reservoir of this strain.
authors.forename: Ulrike
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Lyhs
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Kulkas
authors.forename: Jørgen
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Katholm
authors.forename: Karin Persson
authors.initials: KP
authors.lastname: Waller
authors.forename: Kerttu
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Saha
authors.forename: Richard J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Tomusk
authors.forename: Ruth N
authors.initials: RN
authors.lastname: Zadoks
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002353:Carrier State; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D005060:Europe / Q000453:epidemiology; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D065288:Serogroup; D013290:Streptococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D013292:Streptococcus agalactiae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification
keywords: Europe; Streptococcus agalactiae; bacteria; bovine mastitis; cattle; host specificity; human; molecular epidemiology; zoonoses