Molecular epidemiological methods of Streptococcus suis

Abstract:

Streptococcus suis is an important bacterial pathogen for pigs. It can cause meningitis, sepsis and arthritis in pigs, leading to severe economic losses to the pig industry. In addition, S. suis can also infect humans and is considered a zoonotic pathogen. In order to better prevent and control the disease caused by S. suis, it is necessary to use molecular epidemiological methods to elucidate the epidemiological characteristics of S. suis, including virulence typing, temporal and spatial distribution, transmission route, source of infection, and genetic determinants of transmission. At present, there are several commonly used methods including multilocus sequence typing, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, whole genome sequencing, and PCR-based methods. This article introduces the principles of the above-mentioned methods and the application examples in the epidemiology of S. suis, and analyzes their advantages and disadvantages, which contributes to better revealing the epidemiological characteristics of S. suis, and providing a reference for formulating prevention and control strategies for the disease caused by S. suis.