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Journal of Bacteriology, March 2009, p. 1951-1960, Vol. 191, No. 6
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01590-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

African 1, an Epidemiologically Important Clonal Complex of Mycobacterium bovis Dominant in Mali, Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad ^,

Borna Müller,^1, Markus Hilty,^2, Stefan Berg,^3, M. Carmen Garcia-Pelayo,³ James Dale,³ M. Laura Boschiroli,⁴ Simeon Cadmus,⁵ Bongo Naré Richard Ngandolo,⁶ Sylvain Godreuil,⁷ Colette Diguimbaye-Djaibé,⁶ Rudovick Kazwala,⁸ Bassirou Bonfoh,⁹ Betty M. Njanpop-Lafourcade,¹⁰ Naima Sahraoui,^11,12 Djamel Guetarni,¹¹ Abraham Aseffa,¹³ Meseret H. Mekonnen,¹³ Voahangy Rasolofo Razanamparany,¹⁴ Herimanana Ramarokoto,¹⁴ Berit Djønne,¹⁵ James Oloya,¹⁶ Adelina Machado,¹⁷ Custodia Mucavele,¹⁷ Eystein Skjerve,¹⁸ Francoise Portaels,¹⁹ Leen Rigouts,¹⁹ Anita Michel,²⁰ Annélle Müller,²¹ Gunilla Källenius,²² Paul D. van Helden,²¹ R. Glyn Hewinson,³ Jakob Zinsstag,¹ Stephen V. Gordon,²³ and Noel H. Smith^3,24*

Swiss Tropical Institute, Socinstrasse 57, 4002 Basel, Switzerland,¹ National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College London, Dovehouse Street, London SW3 6LY, United Kingdom,² VLA Weybridge, New Haw, Surrey KT15 3NB, United Kingdom,³ Unité de Zoonoses Bactériennes, AFSSA-LERPAZ, 23, Avenue du Général de Gaulle, 94706, Maisons-Alfort, France,⁴ Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria,⁵ Laboratoire de Recherches Vétérinaires et Zootechniques de Farcha, BP 433, N'Djaména, Chad,⁶ CHRU Arnaud de Villeneuve, Laboratoire de Bactériologie-Virologie, 371, Avenue du Doyen Gaston Giraud, 34294 Montpellier Cedex 5, France,⁷ Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania,⁸ Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques en Côte d'Ivoire, 01 BP1303 Abidjan 01, Ivory Coast,⁹ Unité Epidémiologie et Vaccinologie, Agence de Médecine Préventive, s/c Institut Pasteur, 25 rue du Docteur Roux, 75015 Paris, France,¹⁰ Université Saad Dahlab, Route de Soumaa, BP 270, Blida, Algeria,¹¹ Centre Universitaire d'El-Tarf, El-Tarf, Algeria,¹² Armauer Hansen Research Institute, P.O. Box 1005, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia,¹³ Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, BP 1274, 101 Antananarivo, Madagascar,¹⁴ Department of Animal Health, National Veterinary Institute, BP 750 Sentrum, N-0106, Oslo, Norway,¹⁵ Department of Veterinary Public Health and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda,¹⁶ Facudade de Veterinaria, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, CP 257 Maputo, Mozambique,¹⁷ Department of Food Safety and Infection Biology, Norwegian School of Veterinary Science, N-0033, Oslo, Norway,¹⁸ Department of Microbiology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nationalestraat 155, B-2000 Antwerp, Belgium,¹⁹ Tuberculosis Laboratory, ARC-Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute, Private Bag x05, Onderstepoort 0110, South Africa,²⁰ Division of Molecular Biology and Human Genetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Stellenbosch University, P.O. Box 19063, Tygerberg, South Africa,²¹ Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institutet, SE-171 77 Stockholm, Sweden,²² Schools of Agriculture, Food Science, and Veterinary Medicine, Medicine and Medical Science, and Biomolecular and Biomedical Science, College of Life Sciences, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland,²³ Centre for the Study of Evolution, University of Sussex, Brighton, BN1 9QL United Kingdom,²⁴

Received 10 November 2008/ Accepted 2 January 2009

We have identified a clonal complex of Mycobacterium bovis present at high frequency in cattle in population samples from several sub-Saharan west-central African countries. This closely related group of bacteria is defined by a specific chromosomal deletion (RDAf1) and can be identified by the absence of spacer 30 in the standard spoligotype typing scheme. We have named this group of strains the African 1 (Af1) clonal complex and have defined the spoligotype signature of this clonal complex as being the same as the M. bovis BCG vaccine strain but with the deletion of spacer 30. Strains of the Af1 clonal complex were found at high frequency in population samples of M. bovis from cattle in Mali, Cameroon, Nigeria, and Chad, and using a combination of variable-number tandem repeat typing and spoligotyping, we show that the population of M. bovis in each of these countries is distinct, suggesting that the recent mixing of strains between countries is not common in this area of Africa. Strains with the Af1-specific deletion (RDAf1) were not identified in M. bovis isolates from Algeria, Burundi, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. Furthermore, the spoligotype signature of the Af1 clonal complex has not been identified in population samples of bovine tuberculosis from Europe, Iran, and South America. These observations suggest that the Af1 clonal complex is geographically localized, albeit to several African countries, and we suggest that the dominance of the clonal complex in this region is the result of an original introduction into cows naïve to bovine tuberculosis.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: VLA Weybridge, New Haw, Surrey KT15 3NB, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 1273 873502. Fax: 44 1932 341111. E-mail: Noel{at}Sussex.ac.uk

Published ahead of print on 9 January 2009.

Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://jb.asm.org/.

B.M., M.H., and S.B. contributed equally to the work.

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Journal of Bacteriology, March 2009, p. 1951-1960, Vol. 191, No. 6
0021-9193/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JB.01590-08
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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