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Genetic Diversity of Gallibacterium anatis Isolates from Different Chicken Flocks

Department of Veterinary Microbiology, The Royal Veterinary and Agricultural University, DK-1870 Frederiksberg C,¹ The Danish Veterinary Institute, DK-1790 Copenhagen V,Denmark²

Received 10 June 2002/ Returned for modification 20 November 2002/ Accepted 4 March 2003

Amplified fragment length polymorphisms (AFLPs) were used to characterize the genotypic diversity of a total of 114 Gallibacterium anatis isolates originating from a reference collection representing 15 biovars from four countries and isolates obtained from tracheal and cloacal swab samples of chickens from an organic, egg-producing flock and a layer parent flock. A subset of strains was also characterized by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and biotyping. The organic flock isolates were characterized by more than 94% genetic similarity, indicating that only a single clone was apparent in the flock. The layer parent flock isolates were grouped into two subclusters, each with similarity above 90%. One subcluster contained only tracheal isolates, while the other primarily included cloacal isolates. In conclusion, we show that AFLP analysis enables fingerprinting of G. anatis, which seems to have a clonal population structure within natural populations. There was further evidence of clonal lineages, which may have adapted to different sites within the same animal.