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Journal of Wildlife Diseases, 45(4), 2009, pp. 1174-1177
© Wildlife Disease Association  2009
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SHORT COMMUNICATION

DNA Genotyping Suggests that Recent Brucellosis Outbreaks in the Greater Yellowstone Area Originated from Elk

 Albano Beja-Pereira1,5, Betsy Bricker2, Shanyuan Chen1, Claudia Almendra1, P. J. White3 and Gordon Luikart1,4,5

1 Centro de Investigacao em Biodiversidade e Recursos Geneticos (CIBIO-UP), Universidade do Porto, Rua Padre Armando Quintas, 4485-661 Vairão (VCD), Portugal
2 US Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service, National Animal Disease Center, 2300 Dayton Road, Ames, Iowa 50010, USA
3 National Park Service, Yellowstone National Park, Mammoth, Wyoming 82190, USA
4 Division of Biological Sciences, University of Montana, Missoula, Montana 59812, USA
6 Corresponding author (email: gordon.luikart{at}mso.umt.edu)

ABSTRACT:   Identifying the source of infectious disease outbreaks is difficult, especially for pathogens that infect multiple wildlife species. Brucella spp. are among the most problematic zoonotic agents worldwide, and they are notoriously difficult to detect and identify. We genotyped 10 variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) DNA loci in 56 Brucella abortus isolates from bison (Bos bison), elk (Cervus elaphus), and cattle (Bos taurus) to test the wildlife species most likely to be the origin of recent outbreaks of brucellosis in cattle in the Greater Yellowstone Area. Isolates from cattle and elk were nearly identical but highly divergent from bison isolates. These data suggest elk, not bison, are the reservoir species of origin for these cattle infections. This study illustrates the potential power of VNTR genotyping to assess the origin of disease outbreaks, which are increasing worldwide following habitat fragmentation, climate change, and expansion of human and livestock populations.
  Key words:  Bison, Brucella abortus, elk, genotyping, DNA, pathogen transmission, reemerging infectious disease, trace-back study, zoonosis.

5 These two authors contributed equally






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