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Molecular characterization of Mycobacterium bovis strains isolated from cattle slaughtered at two abattoirs in AlgeriaAbstract: Altogether, 101 bacterial strains from 100 animals were subjected to molecular characterization. M. bovis was isolated from 88 animals. Other bacteria isolated included one strain of M. caprae, four Rhodococcus equi strains, three Non-tuberculous Mycobacteria (NTM) and five strains of other bacterial species. The M. bovis strains isolated showed 22 different spoligotype patterns; four of them had not been previously reported. The majority of M. bovis strains (89%) showed spoligotype patterns that were previously observed in strains from European cattle. Variable Number of Tandem Repeat (VNTR) typing supported a link between M. bovis strains from Algeria and France. One spoligotype pattern has also been shown to be frequent in M. bovis strains from Mali although the VNTR pattern of the Algerian strains differed from the Malian strains.M. bovis infections account for a high amount of granulomatous lesions detected in Algerian slaughter cattle during standard meat inspection at Algiers and Blida abattoir. Molecular typing results suggested a link between Algerian and European strains of M. bovis.Mycobacterium bovis is the causative agent of Bovine Tuberculosis (BTB) and belongs to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis Complex (MTC), a group of closely related bacteria causing tuberculosis in various mammalian hosts [1].BTB has a major economic impact on livestock productivity [2], can persist in wildlife and thus affect entire ecosystems [3] and it is of public health concern due to its zoonotic potential [4-6]. Although still prevalent in the developed world [7-9], BTB today mostly affects developing countries, which lack the financial and human resources to control the disease [4,5]. BTB is also known to be prevalent in Algeria despite governmental attempts to control the disease [4,5]. However, control is restricted to abattoir meat inspection and biannual intra-dermal tuberculin skin testing of cattle from intensive dairy farms [10]. Moreover, the majority of Algerian cat
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