Equine Epidemiology and Disease Surveillance, Centre for Preventive Medicine, Animal Health Trust, Newmarket, Suffolk CB8 7UU, UK.
Vet J. 2010 Mar;183(3):348-51. doi: 10.1016/j.tvjl.2008.12.013. Epub 2009 Feb 6.
The objective of this study was to characterise the molecular epidemiology of Streptococcus zooepidemicus isolated from the respiratory tracts of 198 Thoroughbred racehorses based at three Newmarket training yards over a 10 month period. Typing utilised two separate PCR procedures targeting the M-like protein hypervariable and the 16S-23S RNA gene intergenic spacer regions of the bacterium. S. zooepidemicus, isolated from 23% (224/983) of study samples, comprised 24 different types of varying prevalence. The four most common types, A1HV4, A1HV2, C1HVu and D1HV1, accounted for 45% of all the typed isolates. Overall, the findings were similar to those reported in a study of Welsh Mountain ponies and confirm that in equids, S. zooepidemicus is not a homogeneous, clonal population but instead represents a wide diversity of strain types. This diversity also highlights potential difficulties in using vaccines to control S. zooepidemicus infections in horses as it is likely that the induction of a heterologous, cross-protective immunity will be required.
本研究旨在描述从三个纽马克特训练场地的 198 匹纯种赛马呼吸道中分离出的兽疫链球菌的分子流行病学特征。该研究采用了两种不同的 PCR 程序，分别针对细菌的 M 样蛋白高变区和 16S-23S RNA 基因间隔区进行了分型。从 983 份研究样本中分离出的兽疫链球菌占 23%（224/983），包含 24 种不同的流行率。四种最常见的类型 A1HV4、A1HV2、C1HVu 和 D1HV1 占所有分型分离株的 45%。总的来说，这些发现与对威尔士山地小马的研究结果相似，证实了在马属动物中，兽疫链球菌不是一个同质的、克隆的种群，而是代表了广泛的菌株类型多样性。这种多样性也突出了使用疫苗来控制马的兽疫链球菌感染的潜在困难，因为很可能需要诱导一种异源的、交叉保护的免疫反应。
