Multilocus sequence types in Czech neonatal GBS strains from 2004 to 2008.

The first multilocus sequence typing results of Czech neonatal Streptococcus agalactiae isolates are presented in this paper. The aims of the study were to prove if the Czech isolates belong to potential invasive clonal complex CC17 and to further analyse serotype-sequence type relationships. Twelve sequence types detected among 77 isolates were assigned to 5 clonal complexes. Sequence type variability was found for most of our collection serotypes. As many as 83 % of the invasive isolates were covered by as few as 3 sequence types: S17, ST23 and ST19. ST17 was the only sequence type strictly tied to serotype III. "Hyperinvasive" ST17 was identified in 85 % of the cerebrospinal fluid isolates (6 out of 7), but in 32 % of the blood isolates only.