European Society of Mycobacteriology - Instituto Nacional de Saúde ...

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IS1245-RFLP Based Genetic Relatedness Of
The Mycobacterium avium subsp. hominissuis STRAINS
ISOLATED FROM HUMANS, ANIMALS AND ENVIRONMENT IN CROATIA
Spicic, Silvio 1 , Cvetnic, Zeljko 1 , Pate, Mateja 2 , Katalinic-Jankovic,
Vera 1 , Duvnjak, Sanja 1 , Ocepek, Matjaz 2 , Zdelar-Tuk, Maja 1 , Krt, Brane 2
1 - Croatian Veterinary Institut, Zagreb, Croatia
3 - Veterinary Faculty Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia
Significance of infections with Mycobacterium avium, in particular subspecies M. a. hominissuis, in animals and humans
is constantly increasing. Susceptibility of humans, cattle and swine to various mycobacteria and the prevalence of these
bacteria in the environment, although very important from the aspect of epizootiology and epidemiology, have not been
sufficiently investigated in Croatia.
This study is based on massive tuberculin skin tests of cattle and swine from large farms, bacteriology and molecular
identification of M. a.hominissuis isolated from domestic and wild animals, humans and environment. Genotyping of the
23 isolates was conducted by IS1245 RFLP method. The selected cut-off value for cluster designation was similarity level
of 75%. A total of 5 clusters containing 86.9 % of all genotyped strains were identified. High similarity level of the profiles
within a cluster was found for the isolates from man, swine from intensive breeding, deer, wild boar and sawdust from
various counties. As no epizootiological links between animals and humans were identified, humans and animals could be
considered as dead-end hosts. According to our results, the source of infection for humans and animals is most probably
the environment.
European Society of Mycobacteriology | 30 th Annual Congress | July 2009 | Porto - Portugal
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