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Genomic heterogeneity of Dichelobacter nodosus within and between UK sheep flocks and between age groups within a flock

Davies, P. L.; Blanchard, A. M.; Staley, C. E.; Bollard, N. J.; Coffey, T. J.; T�temeyer, S.

Genomic heterogeneity of Dichelobacter nodosus within and between UK sheep flocks and between age groups within a flock Thumbnail


Authors

P. L. Davies

C. E. Staley

N. J. Bollard

TRACEY COFFEY TRACEY.COFFEY@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK
Professor of Sustainable Livestock Production



Abstract

Background
Footrot and interdigital dermatitis are endemic infectious diseases in all sheep farming regions, impairing welfare and production. The development of efficacious vaccines against the primary causative pathogen has been hampered by the extensive antigenic diversity of Dichelobacter nodosus. Understanding the heterogeneity of the pathogen within and between flocks is essential if the feasibility of bespoke vaccine production is to be assessed for use in the U.K.

Results
In this study 56 ewe and lamb isolates from 9 flocks were compared by D. nodosus serogroup and Multi Locus Sequence Type which provides significantly enhanced discriminatory power for molecular epidemiology. Serogroup heterogeneity between flocks ranged from two to five unique serogroups per flock. Three flocks contained isolates of two serogroups, two flocks contained isolates of three serogroups and one flock included isolates of five serogroups. Analysis of 25 isolates from one flock with high prevalence of lameness, identified that serogroup and sequence type was significantly correlated with age. Significantly higher proportion of lambs were infected with serogroup B (principally ST85) as opposed to serogroup H (principally ST86), which predominated amongst adult sheep.

Conclusions
Genomic heterogeneity of the pathogen was significantly lower within flock compared to heterogenicity observed between flocks. Furthermore, this study indicates that within a flock, the host-pathogen dynamics and susceptibility to particular D. nodosus strains may be age dependent.

Citation

Davies, P. L., Blanchard, A. M., Staley, C. E., Bollard, N. J., Coffey, T. J., & Tötemeyer, S. (2020). Genomic heterogeneity of Dichelobacter nodosus within and between UK sheep flocks and between age groups within a flock. BMC Microbiology, 20, Article 107. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-020-01769-9

Journal Article Type Article
Acceptance Date Mar 29, 2020
Online Publication Date May 1, 2020
Publication Date 2020-12
Deposit Date Apr 1, 2020
Publicly Available Date Mar 29, 2024
Journal BMC Microbiology
Electronic ISSN 1471-2180
Publisher Springer Verlag
Peer Reviewed Peer Reviewed
Volume 20
Article Number 107
DOI https://doi.org/10.1186/s12866-020-01769-9
Keywords Microbiology (medical); Microbiology
Public URL https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/4237413
Publisher URL https://bmcmicrobiol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12866-020-01769-9

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