Zeitschrift für Bioterrorismus und Bioverteidigung

Abstrakt

Genotyping of Bacillus anthracis Strains Circulating in Albania

Ardi Peculi, Emanuele Campese, Luigina Serrecchia, Leonardo Marino, Jonida Boci, Bizena Bijo, Alessia Affuso, Valentina Mercurio, Luigi Giangrossi and Antonio Fasanella

Anthrax in Albania is an endemic disease characterized by few outbreaks involving a very low number of animals. Nineteen samples of soil coming from burial sites and 11 strains of Bacillus spp isolated from died animals from different districts of Albania were examined. The analysis of soil samples revealed that 11 of them were contaminated with anthrax spores, while only 8 strains were confirmed as Bacillus anthracis. The analysis of CanSNPs showed that all isolates belong to lineage A major subgroup A.Br.008/009 (Trans-Eurasian or TEA strains). The MLVA test at 15 loci showed three different genotypes: Albania GT/1, Albania GT/2 and Albania GT/3. However all the genotypes are genetically very similar to each other which confirm the hypothesis that all of them are the result of the evolution of a local common ancestral strain. Two distinct genotypes (Albania GT/2 and Albania GT/3) were found in the same burial site in the district of Kukës. Although in the scientific literature there have been cases in which two different genotypes were found in the same carcass, the authors believe that in this case the isolation of two different genotypes could be justified by the presence in the same burial sites of two or more animals that died in different times and as a consequence of different outbreaks.