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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Ames, Iowa » National Animal Disease Center » Infectious Bacterial Diseases Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #227060
Title: "HOOF-Print" Genotyping and Haplotype Inference Discriminates among Brucella spp Isolates From a Small Spatial Scale

Author
item ALMENDRA, CLAUDIA - UNIVERSITY OF PORTUGAL
item SILVA, TERESA - UNIVERSITY OF PORTUGAL
item BEJA-PEREIRA, ALBANO - UNIVERSITY OF PORTUGAL
item FERREIRA, ANA - NAT'L VET. INVEST. LAB
item FERRAO-BECK, LENIA - NAT'L VET. INVEST. LAB
item CORREA DE SA, MARIA - NAT'L VET. INVEST. LAB
item Bricker, Betsy
item LUIKART, GORDON - UNIVERSITY OF PORTUGAL

Submitted to: Infection, Genetics and Evolution
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 10/22/2008
Publication Date: 1/1/2009
Citation: Almendra, C., Silva, T.L., Beja-Pereira, A., Ferreira, A.C., Ferrao-Beck, L., Correa De Sa, M.I., Bricker, B.J., Luikart, G. 2009. "HOOF-Print" Genotyping and Haplotype Inference Discriminates among Brucella spp Isolates From a Small Spatial Scale. Infection, Genetics and Evolution. 9(1):104-107.

Interpretive Summary: Brucellosis is an economically important disease of livestock animals world-wide. It can also cause disease in humans. It is important to identify different strains of the disease-causing bacteria so that we can find the source of an outbreak and eradicate the disease before it can spread any further. We identify strains by DNA fingerprinting the bacteria just as they do to identify people and animals. Portugal is a small country that has brucellosis. We were concerned that the bacteria from outbreaks in such a small region would be too closely related to one another for their DNA fingerprints to be different. Instead, we found that even in a small region, the bacteria were different enough to be identified by their DNA fingerprints. As a result of this work, we suggest that DNA fingerprinting is a helpful way to identify disease-causing germs and find out where they came from, even in a small country.

Technical Abstract: We demonstrate that the “HOOF-Print” assay provides high power to discriminate among Brucella isolates collected on a small spatial scale (within Portugal). Additionally, we illustrate how haplotype identification using non-random association among markers allows resolution of B. melitensis biovars (1 and 3). We recommend that future studies use haplotype identification when analyzing multilocus population genetic data to discriminate among microbial isolates such as Brucella.