A novel variant of Chlamydia psittaci causing human psittacosis in China

From January 2022 to November 2022, sporadic psittacosis occurred in Lishui city, China. The patients were presented with fever, cough, and pulmonary infiltration. Their clinical symptoms were not relieved after receiving cephalosporin, penicillin, beta-lactamase inhibitors, and quinolones. Metagenomic next-generation sequencing of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid samples from the patients revealed Chlamydia psittaci infection. Then, three C. psittaci strains were isolated from the patients. Their whole genome sequences (WGSs) were obtained, and a core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST) method was developed to study the population structure of C. psittaci. Using the constructed cgMLST method, 72 WGSs were divided into four related groups and ten sub-clusters. The Lishui strains formed a unique population of C. psittaci, which might represent a new variant of C. psittaci. In vitro antimicrobial susceptibility testing suggested that the Lishui strains were sensitive to tetracycline, macrolides, quinolones, and no drug-resistance was observed.