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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Cell. Infect. Microbiol.
Sec. Clinical Microbiology
Volume 14 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2024.1452143

Multiple Brucella melitensis Lineages Driving Human Brucellosis Epidemic in Shaanxi Province, China: Evidence from Whole Genome Sequencing-Based Analysis

Provisionally accepted
Cuihong An Cuihong An 1shoumin nie shoumin nie 1boyan luo boyan luo 1dijia zhou dijia zhou 1wenjing wang wenjing wang 1yangxin sun yangxin sun 1suoping fan suoping fan 1dongli liu dongli liu 1Zhenjun Li Zhenjun Li 2Zhiguo Liu Zhiguo Liu 2*Wenhui Chang Wenhui Chang 1
  • 1 Shaanxi Provincial Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, China
  • 2 National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), Beijing, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Human brucellosis is a severe public concern in Shaanxi Province, China, and investigating the epidemiological relationship and transmission pattern of B. melitensis is necessary to devise control strategies. In this study, a conventional bio-typing approach and whole-genome sequencing of single-nucleotide polymorphisms were employed to identify 189 strains. Based on the conventional bio-typing that all 189 Brucella strains were identified as B. melitensis, of which bv. 1 in 14, and bv. 3 in 145, and mutant in 30, and Brucella strains distribution in all ten cities, Shaanxi Province.Single nucleotide polymorphisms analysis was used to identify genetic variation in 189 B. melitensis genomes, and maximum-likelihood was used to generate a phylogeny that identified two clades (A and B) and 19 SNPs genotypes (STs). The two clades were highly diverse and exclusively of Eastern Mediterranean origin. Clade B contained 18 STs (2-19), with most isolates originating from a broad swath, implying that multiple B. melitensis lineages circulated in Shaanxi. The 19 STs composed of three-46 strains from different counties and years isolated, suggest that multiple cross-county brucellosis outbreak events are driven by multiple B. melitensis lineages. Global phylogenetic analysis revealed that clade A was close to GTⅡb, and clade B was placed in the GTⅡh lineage, expanding the known diversity of B. melitensis from China. The human brucellosis epidemic in Shaanxi is driven by multiple indigenous circulating B.melitensis lineages, which will contribute to devising a control strategy and providing the foundation for a comprehensive regional phylogeny of this important zoonotic pathogen.

    Keywords: Brucellosis, Brucella melitensis, species/biovars, WGS-SNPs, Genomic

    Received: 20 Jun 2024; Accepted: 02 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 An, nie, luo, zhou, wang, sun, fan, liu, Li, Liu and Chang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Zhiguo Liu, National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention (China CDC), Beijing, China

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