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Zoonotic Transmission of Diphtheria from Domestic Animal Reservoir, Spain

Andreas Hoefer et al. Emerg Infect Dis. 2022 Jun.

Abstract

Toxigenic Corynebacterium ulcerans is as an emerging zoonotic agent of diphtheria. We describe the zoonotic transmission of diphtheria caused by toxigenic C. ulcerans from domestic animals in Spain, confirmed by core-genome multilocus sequence typing. Alongside an increasing number of recent publications, our findings highlight the public health threat posed by diphtheria reemergence.

Keywords: Corynebacterium ulcerans; Spain; bacteria; bacterial infections; diphtheria; zoonoses.

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Figures

Figure
Figure
Core-genome multilocus sequence typing–based minimum spanning tree of all toxigenic Corynebacterium ulcerans strains associated with the zoonotic transmission of diphtheria in Spain in 2019 compared with reference strain NCTC_NC017317 from GenBank. Branches are labeled with the number of allelic differences between strains. European Nucleotide Archive accession numbers: human strain, ERR4880084; CAT1 strain, ERR6177889; CAT2 strain, ERR6177890; DOG1 strain, ERR6177891.
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