Veterinary Microbiology ( IF 2.4 ) Pub Date : 2020-06-10 , DOI: 10.1016/j.vetmic.2020.108751 Mingjun Sun 1 , Mengda Liu 1 , Xiyue Zhang 1 , Ge Zhang 2 , Liangquan Zhu 2 , Jiabo Ding 2 , Zhicheng Zhang 1 , Shixiong Sun 1 , Shufang Sun 1 , Weixing Shao 1 , Peipei Zhang 1 , Jiandong Zhang 1 , Xiangxiang Sun 1 , Xuezheng Fan 2 , Rong Wei 1
Brucellosis is one of the major zoonotic diseases in the world. In China, understanding on its causative agent Brucella is still limited. Recently, we isolated a Brucella strain XZ19-1 from yak in Lhasa, Tibet. Phenotypical characterization proved that it belongs to B. abortus biovar 4, a biotype that has never been reported in China. MLVA-16 genotyping revealed a novel profile (4-5-3-12-2-2-3-3-8-32-8-5-4-3-3-3) in this strain, while MLST sequence typing demonstrated that it belongs to ST 71. Furthermore, the whole genome of XZ19-1 strain was sequenced. Subsequent phylogenetic analysis demonstrated that XZ19-1was genetically more closely related to B. abortus strains originated from European countries rather than to those collected from China previously. Isolation and identification of XZ19-1 strain may thus indicate a unique Brucella lineage existing in Qing-Tibet plateau. These findings will help to improve the diagnosis and epidemiological studies of brucellosis in animals and human in this part of China.