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Tracking the Origin of Austrian Human Brucellosis Cases Using Whole Genome Sequencing
Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease caused by Brucella spp. and a major concern for livestock. Most human cases are caused by B. melitensis and clinical presentation is usually a mild febrile illness. However, treatment failure is frequent and more severe complications can occur. In Austria, every hum...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
Frontiers Media S.A.
2021
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7943447/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33718408 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2021.635547 |
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author | Schaeffer, Justine Revilla-Fernández, Sandra Hofer, Erwin Posch, Romana Stoeger, Anna Leth, Christoph Schmoll, Friedrich Djordjevic, Vesna Lakicevic, Brankica Matovic, Kazimir Hufnagl, Peter Indra, Alexander Allerberger, Franz Ruppitsch, Werner |
author_facet | Schaeffer, Justine Revilla-Fernández, Sandra Hofer, Erwin Posch, Romana Stoeger, Anna Leth, Christoph Schmoll, Friedrich Djordjevic, Vesna Lakicevic, Brankica Matovic, Kazimir Hufnagl, Peter Indra, Alexander Allerberger, Franz Ruppitsch, Werner |
author_sort | Schaeffer, Justine |
collection | PubMed |
description | Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease caused by Brucella spp. and a major concern for livestock. Most human cases are caused by B. melitensis and clinical presentation is usually a mild febrile illness. However, treatment failure is frequent and more severe complications can occur. In Austria, every human brucellosis is investigated to determine whether it was imported from endemic areas or is the sign of an undetected autochthonous transmission. For this study, 21 B. melitensis strains isolated in Austria between 2005 and 2019 were collected, 17 strains from 15 different patients and four strains from cattle. Whole genome sequencing combined with core-genome MLST analysis was used to characterize these strains. A cluster of seven isolates from 2018 (three human and four cattle isolates) was identified, with fewer than two allelic differences. They corresponded to the only Austrian B. melitensis outbreak that happened over the past 15 years. The other 12 Austrian brucellosis cases were single cases, and geographical origins were available for 8/12. Genomic data was used to locate probable geographical origins and compared with the results of the epidemiological investigations. Austrian strains were compared with 67 published B. melitensis sequences available on NCBI. The result of genomic analysis matched for 7/8 cases with documented conclusion of the epidemiological investigation. Genome analysis also pointed to the geographical origin for three of the four cases with missing epidemiological data. Strains from six cases were grouped together (<40 allelic differences) with 4/6 cases imported from the Balkans. Additional B. melitensis isolates from Serbian animals were analyzed and grouped with this branch, suggesting frequent importation from Balkan countries to Austria. Overall, this study highlights the specificities of human brucellosis in Austria. It also underlines the value of whole genome sequencing as a tool to investigate brucellosis cases, allowing to identify and investigate outbreaks but also to support epidemiological investigation of imported cases. However, the reliability of such methods depends on the number of strains for comparison, which can be challenging in low incidence countries. Increasing the availability of published sequences with documented geographical origins would help establishing genomic-based methods for investigating brucellosis cases. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-7943447 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2021 |
publisher | Frontiers Media S.A. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-79434472021-03-11 Tracking the Origin of Austrian Human Brucellosis Cases Using Whole Genome Sequencing Schaeffer, Justine Revilla-Fernández, Sandra Hofer, Erwin Posch, Romana Stoeger, Anna Leth, Christoph Schmoll, Friedrich Djordjevic, Vesna Lakicevic, Brankica Matovic, Kazimir Hufnagl, Peter Indra, Alexander Allerberger, Franz Ruppitsch, Werner Front Med (Lausanne) Medicine Brucellosis is a zoonotic disease caused by Brucella spp. and a major concern for livestock. Most human cases are caused by B. melitensis and clinical presentation is usually a mild febrile illness. However, treatment failure is frequent and more severe complications can occur. In Austria, every human brucellosis is investigated to determine whether it was imported from endemic areas or is the sign of an undetected autochthonous transmission. For this study, 21 B. melitensis strains isolated in Austria between 2005 and 2019 were collected, 17 strains from 15 different patients and four strains from cattle. Whole genome sequencing combined with core-genome MLST analysis was used to characterize these strains. A cluster of seven isolates from 2018 (three human and four cattle isolates) was identified, with fewer than two allelic differences. They corresponded to the only Austrian B. melitensis outbreak that happened over the past 15 years. The other 12 Austrian brucellosis cases were single cases, and geographical origins were available for 8/12. Genomic data was used to locate probable geographical origins and compared with the results of the epidemiological investigations. Austrian strains were compared with 67 published B. melitensis sequences available on NCBI. The result of genomic analysis matched for 7/8 cases with documented conclusion of the epidemiological investigation. Genome analysis also pointed to the geographical origin for three of the four cases with missing epidemiological data. Strains from six cases were grouped together (<40 allelic differences) with 4/6 cases imported from the Balkans. Additional B. melitensis isolates from Serbian animals were analyzed and grouped with this branch, suggesting frequent importation from Balkan countries to Austria. Overall, this study highlights the specificities of human brucellosis in Austria. It also underlines the value of whole genome sequencing as a tool to investigate brucellosis cases, allowing to identify and investigate outbreaks but also to support epidemiological investigation of imported cases. However, the reliability of such methods depends on the number of strains for comparison, which can be challenging in low incidence countries. Increasing the availability of published sequences with documented geographical origins would help establishing genomic-based methods for investigating brucellosis cases. Frontiers Media S.A. 2021-02-24 /pmc/articles/PMC7943447/ /pubmed/33718408 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2021.635547 Text en Copyright © 2021 Schaeffer, Revilla-Fernández, Hofer, Posch, Stoeger, Leth, Schmoll, Djordjevic, Lakicevic, Matovic, Hufnagl, Indra, Allerberger and Ruppitsch. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms. |
spellingShingle | Medicine Schaeffer, Justine Revilla-Fernández, Sandra Hofer, Erwin Posch, Romana Stoeger, Anna Leth, Christoph Schmoll, Friedrich Djordjevic, Vesna Lakicevic, Brankica Matovic, Kazimir Hufnagl, Peter Indra, Alexander Allerberger, Franz Ruppitsch, Werner Tracking the Origin of Austrian Human Brucellosis Cases Using Whole Genome Sequencing |
title | Tracking the Origin of Austrian Human Brucellosis Cases Using Whole Genome Sequencing |
title_full | Tracking the Origin of Austrian Human Brucellosis Cases Using Whole Genome Sequencing |
title_fullStr | Tracking the Origin of Austrian Human Brucellosis Cases Using Whole Genome Sequencing |
title_full_unstemmed | Tracking the Origin of Austrian Human Brucellosis Cases Using Whole Genome Sequencing |
title_short | Tracking the Origin of Austrian Human Brucellosis Cases Using Whole Genome Sequencing |
title_sort | tracking the origin of austrian human brucellosis cases using whole genome sequencing |
topic | Medicine |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7943447/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33718408 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2021.635547 |
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