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Issue 4

Journal for Veterinary Medicine, Biotechnology and Biosafety

Volume 4, Issue 4, December 2018, Pages 5–11

ISSN 2411-3174 (print version) ISSN 2411-0388 (online version)

PHYLOGENETIC ANALYSIS OF UKRAINIAN BACILLUS ANTHRACIS STRAINS

Biloivan O. V. ¹, Stegniy B. T. ¹, Arefiev V. L. ¹, Solodiankin O. S. ¹, Gerilovych A. P. ¹, Duerr A. ², Schwarz J. ², Grass G. ², Napnenko O. O. ³, Deryabin O. M. ³

¹ National Scientific Center ‘Institute of Experimental and Clinical Veterinary Medicine’, Kharkiv, Ukraine, e-mail: silverscreen91@gmail.com

² Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, Munich, Germany

³ State Scientific Control Institute of Biotechnology and Strains of Microorganisms, Kyiv, Ukraine

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Citation for print version: Biloivan, O. V., Stegniy, B. T., Arefiev, V. L., Solodiankin, O. S., Gerilovych, A. P., Duerr, A., Schwarz, J., Grass, G., Napnenko, O. O. and Deryabin, O. M. (2018) ‘Phylogenetic analysis of Ukrainian Bacillus anthracis strains’, Journal for Veterinary Medicine, Biotechnology and Biosafety, 4(4), pp. 5–11.

Download PDF (online version)

Citation for online version: Biloivan, O. V., Stegniy, B. T., Arefiev, V. L., Solodiankin, O. S., Gerilovych, A. P., Duerr, A., Schwarz, J., Grass, G., Napnenko, O. O. and Deryabin, O. M. (2018) ‘Phylogenetic analysis of Ukrainian Bacillus anthracis strains’, Journal for Veterinary Medicine, Biotechnology and Biosafety. [Online] 4(4), pp. 5–11. Available at: http://jvmbbs.kharkov.ua/archive/2018/volume4/issue4/oJVMBBS_2018044_005-011.pdf

Summary. In many countries anthrax is a common zoonotic disease which poses a serious threat to human and animal health. Sporadic cases of anthrax occur each year both among farm animals and humans in Ukraine. The cutaneous form of anthrax is the most widespread in Ukraine. The capability of Bacillus anthracis spores to remain viable in soil for decades, as well as the possibility to use this pathogen as biological terror agent make effective diagnostic and research capabilities extremely important. This comprises molecular methods including state-of-the-art methods for accurate genotyping of B. anthracis strains. A total of 12 B. anthracis DNA samples from a Ukrainian strain collection were studied by qPCR to confirm chromosomal and plasmid markers. To characterize regional and global phylogeographic relationships of these strains, canonical Single Nucleotide Polymorphism analysis (canSNP) and Multiple-Locus Variable-number of tandem repeat Analysis (MLVA‑25) were conducted. B. anthracis chromosomal DNA-markers (dhp61 and gyrA) as well as those of the pXO1 plasmid could be detected in all 12 DNA samples. However, only 5 out of 12 tested strains contained the pXO2 plasmid-marker. All pXO2 positive strains group into the A.Br.008/009 SNP-clade, which belongs to the major ‘A’ branch of B. anthracis. MLVA‑25 analysis suggested that Ukrainian B. anthracis genotypes are related to strains from Southern Europe (in particular, to Bulgarian, Greek, and Italian isolates). In contrast, the pXO2‑ negative strains might be related to the Russian vaccine strain STI as they grouped to A.Br.008/011 canSNP group. The infrequent occurrence of anthrax in the country of Ukraine is likely caused by a heterogeneous population of B. anthracis. This population is phylogenetically composed of at least two different canSNP groups of the world-wide dominating A‑branch of the pathogen. While one group might stem from environmental recovery of live vaccine strains used in Ukraine (or the former Soviet Union in the past) the other one, the A.Br.008/009 group, could be enzootic as indicated by the presence of related strains in countries of southeastern Europe in relatively close geographical vicinity to Ukraine.

Keywords: anthrax, genotyping, PCR, HRM, canonical SNP, MLVA, Ukraine

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