ABSTRACT
Within the framework of epidemiological surveillance by molecular typing tools conducted in the NRL on multi-resistant strains, the application of spoligotyping on a group of 390 strains consisting of 389 DR-MTB strains and 1 susceptible strain isolated from patients made it possible to detect the presence of 15 strains belonging to the Beijing genotype. All 15 strains were genotyped by MTBDRplus. Among the 15 strains, 11 were typed by RFLP and 9 by MIRU-VNTR. After analysis of the profiles obtained by the software MIRU-VNTRplus, two spoligotypes (st No. 1 and st No. 265) and four RFLP profiles and a complete identity profile by MIRU-VNTR, information collected on patients allowed the research team to detect a family tie among patients of three different families, as well as one nosocomial TB transmission. The percentage of Beijing strains found among the patients in this study was 3.8%; this figure does not reflect the reality because it was calculated from an essay on MDR-TB. To get an idea of the prevalence of Beijing TB strains in this country, a more extensive study is currently being considered.
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND: Bovine Tuberculosis is prevalent in Algeria despite governmental attempts to control the disease. The objective of this study was to conduct, for the first time, molecular characterization of a population sample of Mycobacterium bovis strains isolated from slaughter cattle in Algeria. Between August and November 2007, 7250 animals were consecutively screened at the abattoirs of Algiers and Blida. In 260 animals, gross visible granulomatous lesions were detected and put into culture. Bacterial isolates were subsequently analysed by molecular methods. RESULTS: Altogether, 101 bacterial strains from 100 animals were subjected to molecular characterization. M. bovis was isolated from 88 animals. Other bacteria isolated included one strain of M. caprae, four Rhodococcus equi strains, three Non-tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) and five strains of other bacterial species. The M. bovis strains isolated showed 22 different spoligotype patterns; four of them had not been previously reported. The majority of M. bovis strains (89%) showed spoligotype patterns that were previously observed in strains from European cattle. Variable Number of Tandem Repeat (VNTR) typing supported a link between M. bovis strains from Algeria and France. One spoligotype pattern has also been shown to be frequent in M. bovis strains from Mali although the VNTR pattern of the Algerian strains differed from the Malian strains. CONCLUSION: M. bovis infections account for a high amount of granulomatous lesions detected in Algerian slaughter cattle during standard meat inspection at Algiers and Blida abattoir. Molecular typing results suggested a link between Algerian and European strains of M. bovis.
