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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, May 2001, p. 2167-2175, Vol. 67, No. 5
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.5.2167-2175.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.

Epidemiology of Rhodococcus equi Strains on Thoroughbred Horse Farms

Anna C. Morton,1 Angela P. Begg,2 Garry A. Anderson,3 Shinji Takai,4 Christoph Lämmler,5 and Glenn F. Browning1,*

Veterinary Preclinical Centre, Faculty of Veterinary Science, University of Melbourne,1 Veterinary Clinical Centre, Princes Highway, Werribee,3 Victoria, and Scone Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, Scone, New South Wales,2 Australia; Department of Animal Hygiene, School of Veterinary Medicine and Animal Sciences, Kitasato University, Towada, Aomori, Japan4; and Institut füor Tierärztliche Nahrungsmittelkunde, Bakteriologie und Hygiene der Milch, Justus-Liebig Universität Gießen, Gießen, Germany5

Received 17 July 2000/Accepted 30 January 2001

Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of restriction endonuclease-digested genomic DNA from a large collection of clinical isolates of Rhodococcus equi, an important pathogen of foals, was used to compare strain distribution between farms and over time. Forty-four strains were found among 209 isolates, with 5 of these accounting for over half the isolates and the 22 strains isolated more than once accounting for 90% of the isolates. The average genotypic diversity on each farm and in each year was found to be less than the genotypic diversity of the isolates taken as a whole, with 5.2% of the total diversity being due to differences between farms and 5.5% to differences between years. A small number of strains on each farm were found to have caused at least half the clinical cases of disease, and these varied between farms and, to a lesser extent, years. Most strains were found on more than one farm, and some very similar restriction patterns were found among isolates from different continents, indicating that strains can be very widespread. Multiple strains were isolated in five of the six cases in which more than one isolate from a single foal was examined, indicating that disease may commonly be caused by simultaneous infection with multiple strains. It was concluded that there are a number of different strains of R. equi which carry the vapA gene, and these strains tend to be widespread, but individual farms tend to have particular strains associated with them.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Veterinary Preclinical Centre, Faculty of Veterinary Science, The University of Melbourne, Victoria 3010, Australia. Phone: (613) 8344 7342. Fax: (613) 8344 7374. E-mail: glenfb{at}unimelb.edu.au.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, May 2001, p. 2167-2175, Vol. 67, No. 5
0099-2240/01/$04.00+0   DOI: 10.1128/AEM.67.5.2167-2175.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.


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