Tuberculosis in swine co-infected with Mycobacterium avium

BARANDIARAN S; PÉREZ, ANDRÉS; GIOFFRÉ, ANDREA KARINA; MARTÍNEZ VIVOT, MARCELA; CATALDI ANGEL; ZUMÁRRAGA, MARTÍN JOSÉ

EPIDEMIOLOGY AND INFECTION.

CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS

Lugar: Cambridge; Año: 2014

0950-2688

In Argentina little is known about the epidemiology of tuberculosis (TB) infection in swine. Wecharacterized the epidemiological dynamics of Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC) infection ina swine population of Argentina using molecular tools and spatial analysis techniques. Isolates(n = 196) obtained from TB-like lesions (n = 200) were characterized by polymerase chainreaction. The isolates were positive to either M. bovis (IS6110) (n = 160) or M. avium (IS1245)(n = 16) while the remaining 20 (10·2%) isolates were positive to both M. bovis and M. avium.The detection of both bacteria together suggests co-infection at the animal level. In addition,MAC-positive isolates (n = 36) were classified as M. avium subsp. avium (MAA) (n = 30) andM. avium subsp. hominissuis (MAH) (n = 6), which resulted in five genotypes when they weretyped using mycobacterial interspersed repetitive unit, variable number of tandem repeats(MIRU-VNTR). One significant (P = 0·017) spatial clustering of genotypes was detected, inwhich the proportion of MAH isolates was larger than expected under the null hypothesis ofeven distribution of genotypes. These results show that in Argentina the proportion of TB casesin pigs caused by M. avium is larger than that reported in earlier studies. The proportion ofM. bovis?MAC co-infections was also higher than in previous reports. These results providevaluable information on the epidemiology of MAC infection in swine in Argentina.