Genetic Structure and Drug Susceptibility Patterns of Complex Strains Responsible of Human Pulmonary Tuberculosis in the Major Rearing Region in Cameroon.

. Cameroon this last decade continues to present a low contribution of and in human tuberculosis (TB), while was prevalent in cattle but all these pieces of information only concerned West and Center regions. . We carried out the first study in Adamaoua, one of the most rearing regions of Cameroon, on the genetic structure and drug susceptibility of the MTBC strains isolated from newly diagnosed sputum smear-positive patients aged 15 years and above. For that purpose, spoligotyping, a modified 15 standard MIRU/VNTR loci typing, and the proportion method were used. . Four hundred and thirty-seven MTBC isolates were analyzed by spoligotyping. Of these, 423 were identified as , within the Cameroon family being dominant with 278 (65.7%) isolates; twelve (2.75%) isolates were classified as and two as . MIRU/VNTR typing of the most prevalent sublineage (SIT 61) suggested that this lineage is not a unique clone as thought earlier but could constitute a group of strains implicated to different pocket of TB transmission. Only sublineages were associated with antituberculosis drug resistance. . These results showed the weak contribution of and to human active pulmonary tuberculosis in Cameroon even in the rearing region.