Mycobacterium bovis in Argentina: isolates from cats typified by spoligotyping.

In the present work, 19 Mycobacterium bovis isolates from different cats were typified by spoligotyping. We detected nine spoligotypes. There was only one cluster, which grouped 11 of the isolates (57.9%), showing the main spoligotype from cattle from Argentina. The rest of the spoligotypes presented only one isolate each. Five of them were not found in cattle, and were unique and exclusive of cats. The isolates studied show that tuberculosis of bovine origin in cats constitutes a potential public health problem in Buenos Aires region. The identification of genotypes from non-natural hosts could contribute to understand the spread of bovine tuberculosis. This is the first report showing genetic profiles of M. bovis isolates in felines from Argentina.