Molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis at a regional scale in Germany

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is the causal agent of Johne's disease in dairy cattle. Genotyping of MAP is useful to gain a better understanding of the origin of infection, to evaluate regional control programs, to improve diagnostics, and to develop vaccines. In this study 91 MAP isolates mainly from symptomatic dairy cattle in Rhineland-Palatinate (RP, Germany), its neighbor federal states, and Luxembourg were genotyped using Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Units-Variable Number Tandem Repeat (MIRU-VNTR) and Multilocus Short Sequence Repeats (MLSSR). MIRU-VNTR and MLSSR produced 11 and 6 different genotypes among the 91 isolates, respectively. The combined analysis of both methods produced 25 genotypes with an index of discrimination (D) of 0.93 (95% CI: 0.91-0.95). The results revealed the genetic diversity of MAP and the dominance of two MAP genotypes commonly found in Europe, showed the usefulness of MAP genotyping in studies at a regional scale, and provided useful information for control initiatives in RP.