Genoprofiling of Multiresistant Salmonella Enterica

To assess the added value of genoprofiling for Salmonella enterica:
<OL> <LI> A panel of strains of S. Typhimurium phage type U288 with resistance to ampicillin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin, sulphonamides, tetracyclines and trimethoprim (ACSSuTTm), from cases of human infection, pigs and poultry or poultry meat, isolated in England and Wales in 2005 will be selected from the strain collections of the HPA and the VLA.
<LI>Drug resistance genes, plasmids and integron structures will be characterised by methods developed under VM02136.
<LI>Isolates will be characterised by PFGE and by VNTR fingerprinting, using in the latter case a consensus set of primers shared between the two organisations. Animal isolates will be characterised at the VLA and human and food isolates at the HPA. Strains will be exchanged to assess the validity and comparability of results.
<LI>Similar studies will be instigated for MR S. Typhimurium DTs 104 (human, bovine, porcine and poultry isolates), and 193 (human and pig isolates) and MR S. Paratyphi B variant Java (human isolates, cattle isolates and poultry isolates). It is possible that the primers used, which have been developed specifically for S. Typhimurium, may not be appropriate for S. Java. In this eventuality new VNTR primers specific for S. Java will be designed and field-tested.
<LI>Where appropriate, all isolates of S. enterica exhibiting resistance to third generation cephalosporins and studied under VM02136 will be further sub-typed by genoprofiling, using as comparison strains of the same serotype / phage type without such resistance.
<LI> Results will be digitised and incorporated into a joint bioinformatics database of strain characteristics and proposed international databases for zoonotic bacterial pathogens.