Application and interpretation of multiple locus variable number tandem repeat analysis for Escherichia coli O157:H7 laboratory surveillance and outbreak response in Canada, 2008-2012
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Date
2014-08-23
Authors
Rumore, Jillian
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Abstract
To enhance outbreak investigations of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli O157:H7, PulseNet Canada has recently applied Multiple Locus Variable Number Tandem Repeat Analysis (MLVA) as a supplemental subtyping tool in combination with the gold standard subtyping method Pulsed-field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) for enhanced resolution of isolates exhibiting indistinguishable/highly similar PFGE patterns. The objective was to assess the discriminatory power and level of specificity MLVA offers for outbreak detection and response. Results demonstrate that MLVA provides a statistically significant increase in discriminatory power for outbreak investigations (0.998) compared to PFGE alone (0.993). MLVA was able to provide additional resolution over PFGE analysis and generally agreed with PFGE when isolates were identical and epidemiologically linked. MLVA shows great promise as a molecular epidemiological tool to complement PFGE, as it improves case categorization during outbreak investigations, and the greatest benefits of MLVA may be realized during routine surveillance, when epidemiological information is not available.
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E. coli O157:H7, MLVA