Genotypes of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis from South American countries determined by two methods based on genomic repetitive sequences.

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is the causal agent of Johne's disease or paratuberculosis of ruminants and has been associated with Crohn's disease in humans. In this study, the genotypes of MAP obtained so far in South American countries using a combination of the subtyping methods Mycobacterial Interspersed Repeats Units-Variable Number of Tandem Repeats (MIRU-VNTR) and Multilocus Short Sequence Repeats (MLSSR) were analyzed. Through this analysis, seven different MIRU-VNTR genotypes and seven MLSSR genotypes have been detected. If both methods were combined, nine different genotypes were found. Results revealed the predominance of MIRU-VNTR genotype 1 (INMV 1) and MLSSR genotype A (7 g-10 g-4ggt) among MAP isolates from different host species in South America. These predominant MAP genotypes are also commonly detected in Europe and the United States. This predominance could be the result of higher animal infection ability or better culturability on solid media used for isolation. Further studies on molecular epidemiology of MAP must be carried out in South America to increase our knowledge of the global distribution of MAP.