Identification of Brucella ovis exclusive genes in field isolates from Argentina

Abstract

La brucelosis ovina es una enfermedad infecciosa de curso crónico causada en nuestro país por Brucella ovis (B. ovis). Esta enfermedad constituye un problema importante para la producción ovina del país, especialmente en Patagonia, debido a su amplia difusión a nivel de establecimientos y a las pérdidas económicas que genera. El control de la enfermedad se basa actualmente en el diagnóstico y posterior descarte de animales infectados.

Brucellosis caused by Brucella ovis is one of the most important infectious diseases of sheep. The aim of this study was to determine the presence of genes both inside and outside the specific B. ovis pathogenicity island 1 (BOPI-1) in a large collection of field isolates of B. ovis and other Brucella spp. from Argentina. The BOV_A0500 gene from B. ovis BOPI-1 was identified in all 104 B. ovis isolates studied. The BOPI-1 complete sequence was found to be conserved in 10 B. ovis strains from the collection, for which whole genome sequencing was performed. The BOV_0198 gene, which is outside BOPI-1 and considered exclusive to B. ovis, showed 90–100% identity with genomic regions of B. ovis, B. melitensis, B. abortus, B. canis, B. suis, B. microti, B. ceti and B. pinnipedialis. The results demonstrate that BOPI-1 is the only exclusive genetic region of B. ovis and marine Brucella spp. and that it is highly conserved in B. ovis field isolates from Argentina.