Three strains of Legionella feeleii from patients with pneumonia (425-MI-H, 691-WI-H, and 693-WI-H) and one environmental strain (713-MI-E) received at the Centers for Disease Control for reference diagnostic testing were compared with the type strain WO-44C-C3 (ATCC 35072) by DNA hybridization, chemical analysis of cellular fatty acids and ubiquinones, biochemical tests, and serological charac...

BACKGROUND College students living in residential halls are at increased risk of meningococcal disease. Unlike that for serogroups prevented by quadrivalent meningococcal vaccines, public health response to outbreaks of serogroup B meningococcal disease is limited by lack of a US licensed vaccine. METHODS In March 2010, we investigated a prolonged outbreak of serogroup B disease associated wi...

Neisseria meningitidis is a leading cause of bacterial meningitis and other serious infections worldwide. The epidemiological profile of N. meningitidis is highly changeable, with great differences in disease incidence and serogroup distribution. Six serogroups (namely serogroups A, B, C, W-135, X, and Y) are responsible for most cases of meningococcal disease worldwide; the epidemiological pro...

BACKGROUND The conjugate vaccine against serogroup A Neisseria meningitidis (NmA), MenAfriVac, was first introduced in mass vaccination campaigns of the 1-29-year-olds in Burkina Faso in 2010. The aim of this study was to genetically characterize meningococcal isolates circulating in Burkina Faso before and up to 13 months after MenAfriVac mass vaccination. METHODS A total of 1,659 meningococ...

BACKGROUND Meningococcal disease is infrequently found in Taiwan, a country with 23 million people. Between 1996 and 2002, 17 to 81 clinical cases of the disease were reported annually. Reported cases dramatically increased in 2001-2002. Our record shows that only serogroup B and W135 meningococci have been isolated from patients with meningococcal disease until 2000. However, serogroup A, C an...

Listeria monocytogenes isolates recovered from retail ready-to-eat (RTE) meats, raw chickens and fresh produce were characterized by serogroup identification using PCR, genotyping using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and antimicrobial susceptibility testing. Five L. monocytogenes serogroups were identified. Of the 167 isolates 68 (41%) belonged to serogroup 1/2b, 3b; 53 (32%) belonged ...

Studies of immunity to Pseudomonas aeruginosa have indicated that a variety of potential immunogens can elicit protection in animal models, utilizing both antibody- and cell-mediated immune effectors for protection. To attempt to optimize delivery of multiple protective antigens and elicit a broad range of immune effectors, we produced an aroA deletion mutant of the P. aeruginosa serogroup O2/O...

UNLABELLED The structures of Streptococcus pneumoniae capsular polysaccharides (CPSs) are essential for defining the antigenic as well as genetic relationships between CPS serotypes. The four serotypes that comprise CPS serogroup 35 (i.e., types 35F, 35A, 35B, and 35C) are known to cross-react with genetically related type 20, 29, 34, 42, or 47F. While the structures of CPS serotype 35A (CPS35A...

Rectal fecal samples were taken once a week from 49 calves on the same farm. In addition, the dams of the calves were sampled at the time of calf birth and at the end of the study. Strains of verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) were isolated from these samples by using PCR and DNA probe hybridization tests and were characterized with respect to serotype, verocytotoxin gene (vtx) typ...

During periods of endemic meningococcal disease, serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis is responsible for a significant percentage of invasive diseases, and no particular clone or strain predominates (F. E. Ashton and D. A. Caugant, Can. J. Microbiol. 47: 293-289, 2001), However, in the winter of 2004 to 2005, a cluster of serogroup B meningococcal disease occurred in one region in the province of...