Neisseria meningitidis porA, fetA and fHbp gene distribution in Western Australia 2000 to 2011

BACKGROUND: PorA, fetA and fHbp are three antigen encoding genes useful for meningococcal typing and FHbp is an important component of meningococcal B vaccines. METHODS: We performed sequence analysis of meningococcal porA, fetA and fHbp genes on 128 isolates from Western Australia, relating results to age, gender, race and geographic region. RESULTS: We found predominantly PorA subtypes P1.22,14-16 (n = 23) and P1.7-2,4 (n = 19); FetA subtypes F1-5 (n = 41), F3-6 (n = 11), F5-1 (n = 10), F5-2 (n = 9), F5-5 (n = 8), F3-3 (n = 8); and FHbp variant groups 1 (n = 65) and 2 (n = 44). PorA P1.22,14-16 and FHbp variant group 2 were associated with younger age and aboriginality. CONCLUSIONS: FHbp modular groups of the bivalent recombinant FHbp vaccine and the multicomponent 4CMenB vaccine make up 8.3% and 47.7% respectively of the examined serogroup B isolates from 2000–2011, however to estimate vaccine efficacy requires an account of all vaccine antigens and their levels of expression. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12879-014-0686-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.