Characterization of Haemophilus parasuis strains from swine through pulsed field electrophoresis (PFGE) and multiloccus sequence typing (MLST)

Abstract

Haemophilus parasuis is the etiological agent of Glasser's disease; it causes arthritis, pneumonia, meningitis and polyserositis in pigs, and has assumed great importance in modern swine production since their incidence is rising in recent years. Nowadays, fifteen serotypes have been described, however a large number of samples are untypeable by conventional testing. In the present study, a hundred strains of H. parasuis from Laboratory of Swine Health and Virology - VPS - FMVZ -USP culture collection will be submitted to genus/species confirmation and identification of vtaA virulence genes by PCR, strains will be submitted also to serotyping and evaluation of resistance profile by determination of minimal inhibitory concentration. After that, H. parasuis strains will be submitted to molecular characterization by pulsed field electrophoresis and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Phenotypic and genotypic information of tested strains will be compared to identify of possible epidemiological and virulence markers. (AU)