Molecular epidemiological characteristics of Brucella in Guizhou Province, China, from 2009 to 2021

Qinqin Tan; Yue Wang; Ying Liu; Zhongfa Tao; Chun Yu; Yan Huang; Xinggui Yang; Xia Ying; Yong Hu; Shijun Li

doi:10.3389/fmicb.2023.1188469

Molecular epidemiological characteristics of Brucella in Guizhou Province, China, from 2009 to 2021

Front Microbiol. 2023 Jun 23:14:1188469. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1188469. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Qinqin Tan^#^{1

2}, Yue Wang^#¹, Ying Liu¹, Zhongfa Tao³, Chun Yu³, Yan Huang³, Xinggui Yang¹, Xia Ying^{1

2}, Yong Hu², Shijun Li^{1

2}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory Center, Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Guizhou Provincial, Guiyang, Guizhou, China.
² The Key Laboratory of Environmental Pollution Monitoring and Disease Control, Ministry of Education, School of Public Health, University of Guizhou Medical, Guiyang, Guizhou, China.
³ Center for Disease Control and Prevention of Guizhou Provincial, Institute of Infectious Disease Control, Guiyang, Guizhou, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Introduction: Brucellosis was made statutorily notifiable in 1955, in China, while in Guizhou Province, the pathogen of human brucellosis was isolated for the first time in 2011. However, currently, the brucellosis epidemic is becoming more and more severe in Guizhou Province. The type distribution and genetic characteristics of Brucella in Guizhou Province, as well as its evolutionary relationship with domestic and foreign strains, are still unclear.

Methods: MLST, MLVA, and rpoB typing techniques were used for the molecular epidemiological study of the 83 Brucella isolates in Guizhou province.

Results: Among the 83 Brucella strains, MLST identified three ST genotypes, of which ST39 is a newly reported type in China. MLVA-16 generated 49 genotypes, and MLVA-11 generated 5 known genotypes and 2 unreported genotypes. Six genotypes were identified by rpoB technology.

Discussion: MLVA has a high resolution, but differences at the Bruce 04 and 16 loci cannot exclude associations between epidemics, and combining MLST and rpoB typing methods for epidemiologic tracing can avoid erroneous judgments. Moreover, through the combined analysis of the three typing techniques, the possible origin of the new Brucella can be reasonably inferred, which is also conducive to promoting the subsequent research of the novel Brucella.

Keywords: Brucella; Guizhou Province; MLST; MLVA; brucellosis; rpoB.

Grants and funding

Funding was provided by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Project (No. 82273758) and by the Science and Technology Department of Guizhou Province (Qiankehe Platform Talent [2018]5627).