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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, December 2005, p. 5888-5898, Vol. 43, No. 12
0095-1137/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.43.12.5888-5898.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Clonal Nature of Campylobacter fetus as Defined by Multilocus Sequence Typing

Marcel A. P. van Bergen,1,{dagger} Kate E. Dingle,2,{dagger} Martin C. J. Maiden,3 Diane G. Newell,4 Linda van der Graaf-Van Bloois,1,5 Jos P. M. van Putten,5 and Jaap A. Wagenaar1,5*

Animal Sciences Group, Division of Infectious Diseases (OIE Reference Laboratory for Campylobacteriosis), Lelystad, The Netherlands,1 Nuffield Department of Clinical Sciences, University of Oxford, Department of Microbiology, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, United Kingdom,2 The Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research and Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, Oxford, United Kingdom,3 Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Weybridge, United Kingdom,4 Department of Infectious Diseases and Immunology (OIE Reference Laboratory for Campylobacteriosis), Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands5

Received 15 July 2005/ Returned for modification 15 August 2005/ Accepted 19 September 2005

Campylobacter fetus can be divided into the subspecies C. fetus subsp. fetus and C. fetus subsp. venerealis. C. fetus subsp. fetus causes sporadic infections in humans and abortion in cattle and sheep and has been isolated from a variety of sites in different hosts. C. fetus subsp. venerealis is host restricted, being isolated mainly from the genital tracts of cattle, and is the causative agent of bovine genital campylobacteriosis. Despite differences in niche preference, microbiological subspecies differentiation has proven difficult. Different typing methods divided C. fetus isolates into different subgroups, depending on the methods used. The relative value of these methods can be assessed by the evolutionary relationship of isolates belonging to the genus; therefore, we developed a multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme for C. fetus. This scheme was applied to 140 C. fetus isolates previously typed by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis. A total of 14 different sequence types (STs) were identified, and these exhibited low levels of inter-ST genetic diversity, with only 22 variable sites in 3,312 nucleotides. These MLST data indicate that C. fetus is genetically homogeneous compared to the homogeneity of other Campylobacter species. The two C. fetus subspecies were extremely closely related genetically, but ST-4 was associated only with C. fetus subsp. venerealis, which represents a "bovine" clone. The C. fetus subsp. fetus isolates studied were more diverse in terms of their STs, and the STs correlated with epidemiological relationships. Congruence was observed among C. fetus subspecies, sap type, and ST; therefore, MLST confirms that mammalian C. fetus is genetically stable, probably as result of the introduction of a single ancestral clone into a mammalian niche.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Animal Sciences Group, Division of Infectious Diseases, P.O. Box 65, 8200 AB Lelystad, The Netherlands. Phone: 31 320 238157. Fax: 31 320 238961. E-mail: jaap.wagenaar{at}wur.nl.

{dagger} M. van Bergen and K. Dingle contributed equally to the manuscript, and both are considered the first author.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, December 2005, p. 5888-5898, Vol. 43, No. 12
0095-1137/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.43.12.5888-5898.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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