Forty mycobacterial strains comprising clinical Indian isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (28 field isolates +1H37 Rv) and Mycobacterium bovis (10 field isolates +1 AN5) were subjected to restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis (RFLP) using IS6110 and IS1081 probes. Most of these strains originated from dairy cattle herd and human patients from Indian Veterinary research Institute (IVRI) campus isolated from the period of 1986 to 2000. Our study showed presence of 8 copies of IS6110 in most of the M.tuberculosis (96.6%) strains irrespective of their origin with the exception of one M.tuberculosis strain with presence of an extra copy (3.4%). All M.bovis strains showed a single copy of IS6110 on the characteristic 1.9kb restriction fragment. RFLP analysis with IS1081 invariably showed the presence of 5 copies in all isolates of M.bovis and M.tuberculosis at the same chromosomal location. Similarity of IS6110 RFLP fingerprints of M.tuberculosis strains from animals and human suggested the possibility of dissemination of single M.tuberculosis strain among animals as well as human. It was not possible to discriminate within the isolates of either M.tuberculosis or M.bovis, when IS1081 was used as target sequence. The IS6110 RFLP is a valuable tool for disclosing transmission chain of M. tuberculosis and M. bovis among humans as well as animals
Animals ; Bacterial Typing Techniques ; Cattle ; DNA Fingerprinting/*veterinary ; DNA, Bacterial/*genetics ; Deer ; Humans ; India/epidemiology ; Mycobacterium bovis/classification/*genetics/isolation&purification ; Mycobacterium tuberculosis/classification/*genetics/isolation & purification ; Polymerase Chain Reaction/veterinary ; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length ; Zoonoses/epidemiology

We investigated the prevalence of Bartonella infections in ticks, mites and small mammals (rodents, insectivores and weasels) collected during 2001 through 2004, from various military installations and training sites in Korea, using PCR and sequence analysis of 16S rRNA, 23S rRNA and groEL heat shock protein genes. The prevalence of Bartonella spp. was 5.2% (n = 1, 305 sample pools) in ticks, 19.1% (n = 21) in mesostigmatid mites and 13.7% (n = 424 individuals) in small mammals. The prevalence within the family Ixodidae was, 4.4% (n = 1, 173) in Haemaphysalis longicornis (scrub tick), 2.7% (n = 74) in H. flava, 5.0% (n = 20) in Ixodes nipponensis, 11.1% (n = 9) in I. turdus, 33.3% (n = 3) in I. persulcatus and 42.3% (n = 26) in Ixodes spp. ticks. In rodents, the prevalence rate was, 6.7% (n = 373) in Apodemus agrarius (striped field mouse) and 11.1% (n = 9) in Eothenomys regulus (Korean red-backed vole) and in an insectivore, Crocidura lasiura, 12.1% (n = 33). Neither of the two weasels were positive for Bartonella spp. Phylogenetic analysis based on amino acid sequence of a portion of the groEL gene amplified from one A. agrarius spleen was identical to B. elizabethae species. We demonstrated the presence of Bartonella DNA in H. longicornis, H. flava and I. nipponensis ticks, indicating that these ticks should be added to the growing list of potential tick vectors and warrants further detailed investigations to disclose their possible roles in Bartonella infection cycles.
Animals ; Bartonella/classification/*isolation&purification ; DNA, Bacterial/isolation&purification ; Disease Vectors ; GroEL Protein/genetics ; Mammals/*microbiology ; Mites/*microbiology ; Polymerase Chain Reaction ; RNA, Ribosomal, 16S/genetics ; RNA, Ribosomal, 23S/genetics ; Ticks/*microbiology