Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Comment
. 2017 Oct 10;8(5):e01613-17.
doi: 10.1128/mBio.01613-17.

Straight from the Horse's "Mouth": Genomic Epidemiology of an Icelandic Equine Epidemic

Mark R Davies  1
Affiliations
Comment

Straight from the Horse's "Mouth": Genomic Epidemiology of an Icelandic Equine Epidemic

Mark R Davies. mBio. .

Abstract

Despite tight biosecurity measures, an outbreak of respiratory disease rapidly spread across the Icelandic equine population in 2010. Horse transportation was brought to a halt in order to contain the spread of the infectious agent. In a recent article, Björnsdóttir and colleagues (S. Björnsdóttir et al., mBio 8:e00826-17, 2017, https://doi.org/10.1128/mBio.00826-17) employ the power and resolution of "genomic epidemiology," the combination of whole genomic sequencing and epidemiological approaches, to examine the source and spread of the outbreak. Intriguingly, the outbreak was not viral in origin, but linked to a bacterial "commensal" Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus infection. A national sampling strategy coupled with population genomics revealed that the outbreak was most likely driven by a S. equi subsp. zooepidemicus sequence type 209 (ST209) infection that spread nationally from a single source. This retrospective study demonstrates the power of genomics applied on a national scale to unravel the cause of a significant biosecurity threat.

Keywords: Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus; equine; genome analysis; genomic epidemiology; outbreak; respiratory pathogens; zoonotic infections.

PubMed Disclaimer

Comment on

Similar articles

See all similar articles

References

    1. Neumann G, Noda T, Kawaoka Y. 2009. Emergence and pandemic potential of swine-origin H1N1 influenza virus. Nature 459:931–939. doi:10.1038/nature08157. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Chen Y, Liang W, Yang S, Wu N, Gao H, Sheng J, Yao H, Wo J, Fang Q, Cui D, Li Y, Yao X, Zhang Y, Wu H, Zheng S, Diao H, Xia S, Zhang Y, Chan KH, Tsoi HW, Teng JL, Song W, Wang P, Lau SY, Zheng M, Chan JF, To KK, Chen H, Li L, Yuen KY. 2013. Human infections with the emerging avian influenza A H7N9 virus from wet market poultry: clinical analysis and characterisation of viral genome. Lancet 381:1916–1925. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)60903-4. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Björnsdóttir S, Harris SR, Svansson V, Gunnarsson E, Sigurðardóttir ÓG, Gammeljord K, Steward KF, Newton JR, Robinson C, Charbonneau ARL, Parkhill J, Holden MTG, Waller AS. 2017. Genomic dissection of an Icelandic epidemic of respiratory disease in horses and associated zoonotic cases. mBio 8:e00826-17. doi:10.1128/mBio.00826-17. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Fulde M, Valentin-Weigand P. 2013. Epidemiology and pathogenicity of zoonotic streptococci. Curr Top Microbiol Immunol 368:49–81. doi:10.1007/82_2012_277. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Velineni S, Desoutter D, Perchec AM, Timoney JF. 2014. Characterization of a mucoid clone of Streptococcus zooepidemicus from an epizootic of equine respiratory disease in New Caledonia. Vet J 200:82–87. doi:10.1016/j.tvjl.2014.01.014. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources