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
. 2021 Aug 11;10(8):1015.
doi: 10.3390/pathogens10081015.

Chlamydia Psittaci ST24: Clonal Strains of One Health Importance Dominate in Australian Horse, Bird and Human Infections

Susan I Anstey  1 , Vasilli Kasimov  1 , Cheryl Jenkins  2 , Alistair Legione  3 , Joanne Devlin  3 , Jemima Amery-Gale  3 , James Gilkerson  3 , Sam Hair  4 , Nigel Perkins  5 , Alison J Peel  6 , Nicole Borel  7 , Yvonne Pannekoek  8 , Anne-Lise Chaber  9 , Lucy Woolford  9 , Peter Timms  1 , Martina Jelocnik  1
Affiliations

Chlamydia Psittaci ST24: Clonal Strains of One Health Importance Dominate in Australian Horse, Bird and Human Infections

Susan I Anstey et al. Pathogens. .

Abstract

Chlamydia psittaci is traditionally regarded as a globally distributed avian pathogen that can cause zoonotic spill-over. Molecular research has identified an extended global host range and significant genetic diversity. However, Australia has reported a reduced host range (avian, horse, and human) with a dominance of clonal strains, denoted ST24. To better understand the widespread of this strain type in Australia, multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and ompA genotyping were applied on samples from a range of hosts (avian, equine, marsupial, and bovine) from Australia. MLST confirms that clonal ST24 strains dominate infections of Australian psittacine and equine hosts (82/88; 93.18%). However, this study also found novel hosts (Australian white ibis, King parrots, racing pigeon, bovine, and a wallaby) and demonstrated that strain diversity does exist in Australia. The discovery of a C. psittaci novel strain (ST306) in a novel host, the Western brush wallaby, is the first detection in a marsupial. Analysis of the results of this study applied a multidisciplinary approach regarding Chlamydia infections, equine infectious disease, ecology, and One Health. Recommendations include an update for the descriptive framework of C. psittaci disease and cell biology work to inform pathogenicity and complement molecular epidemiology.

Keywords: Australia; Chlamydia psittaci; MLST; genetic diversity; novel hosts; novel strains; ompA genotyping.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest. The funders had no role in the study’s design, in the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data, in the writing of the manuscript, or in the decision to publish the results.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Genetic diversity and phylogenetic analyses of C. psittaci from this study. The mid-point rooted phylogenetic analyses of (A) the concatenated 3098 bp C. psittaci STs alignment, and (B) full length (1050 bp) ompA genotypes alignment. Support values of >0.80 are displayed on the tree nodes, and the scale bar represents the number of substitutions per site. The hosts are indicated as per colours in the legend. Australian isolates are denoted in bold and in colours as per host (outlined in the legend), while global isolates are denoted in normal black font.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Knittler M.R., Sachse K. Chlamydia psittaci: Update on an underestimated zoonotic agent. Pathog. Dis. 2015;73:1–15. doi: 10.1093/femspd/ftu007. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Borel N., Polkinghorne A., Pospischil A. A review on chlamydial diseases in animals: Still a challenge for pathologists? Vet. Pathol. 2018;55:374–390. doi: 10.1177/0300985817751218. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Zaręba-Marchewka K., Szymańska-Czerwińska M., Niemczuk K. Chlamydiae—What’s new? J. Vet. Res. 2020;64:461–467. doi: 10.2478/jvetres-2020-0077. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Branley J., Bachmann N.L., Jelocnik M., Myers G.S., Polkinghorne A. Australian human and parrot Chlamydia psittaci strains cluster within the highly virulent 6BC clade of this important zoonotic pathogen. Sci. Rep. 2016;6:30019. doi: 10.1038/srep30019. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kemmerling K., Müller U., Mielenz M., Sauerwein H. Chlamydophila species in dairy farms: Polymerase chain reaction prevalence, disease association, and risk factors identified in a cross-sectional study in western Germany. J. Dairy Sci. 2009;92:4347–4354. doi: 10.3168/jds.2009-2051. - DOI - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources