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. 2016 Dec;22(12):2097-2103.
doi: 10.3201/eid2212.151447.

Streptococcus agalactiae Serotype IV in Humans and Cattle, Northern Europe1

Ulrike Lyhs, Laura Kulkas, Jørgen Katholm, Karin Persson Waller, Kerttu Saha, Richard J Tomusk, Ruth N Zadoks

Streptococcus agalactiae Serotype IV in Humans and Cattle, Northern Europe1

Ulrike Lyhs et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2016 Dec.

Abstract

Streptococcus agalactiae is an emerging pathogen of nonpregnant human adults worldwide and a reemerging pathogen of dairy cattle in parts of Europe. To learn more about interspecies transmission of this bacterium, we compared contemporaneously collected isolates from humans and cattle in Finland and Sweden. Multilocus sequence typing identified 5 sequence types (STs) (ST1, 8, 12, 23, and 196) shared across the 2 host species, suggesting possible interspecies transmission. More than 54% of the isolates belonged to those STs. Molecular serotyping and pilus island typing of those isolates did not differentiate between populations isolated from different host species. Isolates from humans and cattle differed in lactose fermentation, which is encoded on the accessory genome and represents an adaptation to the bovine mammary gland. Serotype IV-ST196 isolates were obtained from multiple dairy herds in both countries. Cattle may constitute a previously unknown reservoir of this strain.

Keywords: Europe; Streptococcus agalactiae; bacteria; bovine mastitis; cattle; host specificity; human; molecular epidemiology; zoonoses.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Distribution of host species and countries across clusters of Streptococcus agalactiae sequence types (STs), with clusters including single- and double-locus variants. Each circle represents an ST, with size of the circle and its colored segments proportional to the number and origin of isolates, respectively. Red, human in Finland; yellow, human in Sweden; green, bovid in Finland; blue, bovid in Sweden. STs are indicated by numbers in the circles. Single- and double-locus variants are connected by black lines.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Distribution of pilus island profiles (A) and alleles within pilus island 2a (B) across Streptococcus agalactiae isolates from humans (dark bars) and bovids (light bars). Letter and number combinations in B show sequence type (ST), molecular serotype (Roman numeral), and allele for pilus island 2a (capital letter).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Distribution of lacEFG PCR–positive (pos) and –negative (neg) human (H) and bovine (B) Streptococcus agalactiae isolates across sequence types (ST). STs found in both host species are shown individually, whereas STs that were found in a single species are grouped by species.
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