ABSTRACT
Objective A suspected Brucella strain, isolated from the first case of mink breeder in Hebei Province was identified and genetic characteristics were analyzed.Methods Blood sample of the patient with brucellosis was collected at brucellosis laboratory of Hebei Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention;anti-Brucella antibody was tested and Brucella was isolated by two phase culture bottles.Conventional methods were used to identify the isolated strain, the genetic characteristics were analyzed by multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA).Results Anti-Brucella antibody was tested positive.The isolated strain was identified as Brucella melitensis biovar 1 using the conventional methods.Using Pannel 1, the strain was genotype 42 clustering to the East Mediterranean Brucella Melitensis group.It was closely clustered with Brucella melitensis biovar 3, and difference of repeated numbers at variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) loci bruce19 was also displayed.Conclusion The case is the first brucellosis case of mink breeder in Hebei Province, the isolated strain from this patient is identified as Brucella melitensis biovar 1 and the genetic characteristics of the strain are closely related to those of Brucella melitensis biovar 3.