Evaluation of the discriminatory power of spoligotyping and 19-locus mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number of tandem repeat analysis (MIRU-VNTR) of Mycobacterium bovis strains isolated from cattle in Algeria

Faïza Belakehal; Stefanie A Barth; Christian Menge; Hamdi T Mossadak; Naïm Malek; Irmgard Moser

doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0262390

Evaluation of the discriminatory power of spoligotyping and 19-locus mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit-variable number of tandem repeat analysis (MIRU-VNTR) of Mycobacterium bovis strains isolated from cattle in Algeria

PLoS One. 2022 Jan 11;17(1):e0262390. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0262390. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Faïza Belakehal¹, Stefanie A Barth^{2

3}, Christian Menge², Hamdi T Mossadak¹, Naïm Malek⁴, Irmgard Moser^{2

3}

Affiliations

¹ High National Veterinary School, Laboratory of Food Hygiene and Quality Insurance System, El-Alia, Oued Smar, Algeria.
² Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut/Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Institute of Molecular Pathogenesis, Germany.
³ National Reference Laboratory for Bovine Tuberculosis, at Friedrich-Loeffler-Institut/Federal Research Institute for Animal Health, Institute of Molecular Pathogenesis, Germany.
⁴ Central Military Hospital, Department of Microbiology, Kouba, Algeria.

Abstract

Bovine tuberculosis (bTB) caused by Mycobacterium (M.) bovis and M. caprae is a transmissible disease of livestock, notifiable to the World Organization for Animal Health (OIE). BTB particularly affects cattle and small ruminants and can be transmitted to humans thereby posing a significant threat to veterinary and public health worldwide. M. bovis is the principal cause of bTB in Algeria. In order to better understand the route of spreading and elaborate an eradication program, isolation and characterization of mycobacteria from Algerian cattle was performed. Sixty strains belonging to the M. tuberculosis complex were analyzed by spoligotyping, thereof 42 by 19-locus-MIRU-VNTR-typing. Spoligotyping revealed 16 distinguishable patterns (Hunter-Gaston discriminatory index [HGDI] of 0.8294), with types SB0120 (n = 20) and SB0121 (n = 13) being the most frequent patterns, representing 55% of the strains. Analyses based on 19-locus-MIRU-VNTR yielded 32 different profiles, five clusters and one orphan pattern, showing higher discriminatory power (HGDI = 0.9779) than spoligotyping. Seven VNTR-loci [VNTR 577 (alias ETR C), 2163b (QU11b), 2165 (ETR A), 2461 (ETR B), 3007 (MIRU 27), 2163a (QUB11a) and 3232 (QUB 3232)] were the most discriminative loci (HGDI ˃ 0.50). In conclusion, 19-locus-MIRU-VNTR yielded more information than spoligotyping concerning molecular differentiation of strains and better supports the elucidation of transmission routes of M. bovis between Algerian cattle herds.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

Algeria / epidemiology
Animals
Bacterial Typing Techniques / methods*
Cattle
DNA, Bacterial / analysis
DNA, Bacterial / genetics*
Genetic Variation*
Minisatellite Repeats*
Mycobacterium bovis / classification
Mycobacterium bovis / genetics*
Mycobacterium bovis / isolation & purification
Tandem Repeat Sequences*
Tuberculosis, Bovine / diagnosis*
Tuberculosis, Bovine / epidemiology
Tuberculosis, Bovine / microbiology

Substances

DNA, Bacterial

Grants and funding

Parts of this work were funded by a travel and stay grant from the High National Veterinary School, Algeria, (ENSV, www.ensv.dz) (grant no. 000592) for Faiza Belakehal. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.