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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, July 2006, p. 2547-2552, Vol. 44, No. 7
0095-1137/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.00078-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Macrorestriction Analysis of Clinical and Environmental Isolates of Sporothrix schenckii

PathWest, Division of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, The Western Australian Centre for Pathology and Medical Research, Nedlands, Western Australia, Australia

Received 12 January 2006/ Returned for modification 13 February 2006/ Accepted 13 March 2006

Sporothrix schenckii causes sporotrichosis, a disease that most commonly presents as a subacute or chronic skin infection. An unusually high incidence of clinical cases of sporotrichosis occurred in the southwest of Western Australia over the last 5 years. Anecdotal accounts from patients implicated contact with hay prior to infection. Isolates of S. schenckii from hay and clinical cases were investigated by traditional phenotypic methods and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). The phenotypic evaluation separated S. schenckii from Ophiostoma spp. A DNA macrorestriction method using SfiI and NotI macrorestriction digestion by PFGE was developed to investigate the epidemiological connections. BioNumerics software was used to analyze the results. DNA macrorestriction digestion patterns for the recent Western Australian clinical isolates and four hay isolates were indistinguishable. Eastern state clinical isolates, national Quality Assurance Program isolates, and other environmental isolates gave different macrorestriction patterns. Clinical isolates from the southwest of Western Australia collected in the 1980s and 1990s were also characterized using PFGE. The patterns generated were indistinguishable from those of the recent clinical isolates. PFGE showed that the dominant strain of S. schenckii causing sporotrichosis in Western Australia is present in hay, has caused sporotrichosis for at least 15 years, and is a different strain from the strains found in other parts of Australia.

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