Genetic relatedness between group B streptococci originating from bovine mastitis and a human group B streptococcus type V cluster displaying an identical pulsed-field gel electrophoresis pattern

• Published in: Clinical microbiology and infection Vol. 12; no. 9; pp. 887 - 893
• Main Authors: Oliveira, I.C.M., de Mattos, M.C., Pinto, T.A., Ferreira-Carvalho, B.T., Benchetrit, L.C., Whiting, A.A., Bohnsack, J.F., Figueiredo, A.M.S.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2006; Blackwell Publishing Ltd; Blackwell
• Subjects: Animals; Bacterial Typing Techniques; Biological and medical sciences; Brazil; Cattle; Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; Female; Genomic diversity; group B streptococci; Gynecology. Andrology. Obstetrics; Humans; Infectious diseases; Mammary gland diseases; Mastitis, Bovine - microbiology; Medical sciences; multilocus sequence typing; Non tumoral diseases; pulsed-field gel electrophoresis; Ribotyping; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Serotyping; Streptococcal Infections - microbiology; Streptococcal Infections - veterinary; Streptococcus; Streptococcus agalactiae; Streptococcus agalactiae - classification; Streptococcus agalactiae - genetics; typing; Brazil; typing; multilocus sequence typing; group B streptococci; pulsed-field gel electrophoresis; Streptococcus agalactiae; Genomic diversity; Human; Mastitis; Typing; Bovine; Genetic diversity; Infection; Mammary gland diseases; Streptococcaceae; Vertebrata; Mammalia; Microbiological investigation; Streptococcus B; Streptococcus A; Molecular epidemiology; Bacteria; Micrococcales; Artiodactyla; Ungulata
• ISSN: 1198-743X; 1469-0691
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1469-0691.2006.01508.x

Twenty isolates of group B streptococcus (GBS) were recovered from the milk of cows with bovine mastitis on three farms located in the south and south-east of Brazil between 1987 and 1988. These isolates were characterised by molecular methods and compared with a collection of 103 human GBS isolates from colonised and infected patients in the same region between 1980 and 2003. Some of the bovine isolates shared identical or similar pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) patterns with a PFGE clone of human GBS type V. In addition, these bovine and human isolates also possessed the same ribotype. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) of representative isolates confirmed the genetic relationship between the human and bovine GBS isolates with identical PFGE patterns, which clustered in the same ST-26 clonal complex. These data support the hypothesis that some bovine GBS strains are related closely to human isolates and may infect humans, or vice versa. Further comparative genomic analyses of GBS isolates from bovine and human origins are required to investigate this hypothesis further.