Epidemiological investigations and multilocus sequence typing of Mycoplasma synoviae isolates from chicken farms in China

Mycoplasma synoviae (M. synoviae) is an important pathogen in poultry industry and has led to major economic losses. Understanding the epidemiology is crucial to improve control and eradication program of M. synoviae. In this study, 487 samples suspected with M. synoviae infection were collected from August 2020 to June 2021 in China. Among 487 samples, 324 samples were MS positive, the positive rate was 66.53%, and 104 strains were isolated from 324 positive samples. The multilocus sequence typing (MLST) method based on seven housekeeping genes was used to conduct genotyping 104 M. synoviae strains isolated, and the 104 isolates belonged to 8 sequence types (STs) after MLST genotyping, and ST-34 had the highest proportion. After BURST analysis, all 104 isolates were divided into group 12 with other 56 strains isolated from China. Phylogenetic tree constructed by neighbor-joining method showed that nearly all of Chinese isolates (160 isolates) clustered together and separated from other reference isolates (217 isolates) in the PubMLST database. In conclusion, this study suggested that the M. synoviae strains in China were highly similar and independent of abroad strains.