Molecular epidemiology of bovine tuberculosis. I. Mycobacterium bovis genotyping.

The lack of a typing system for Mycobacterium bovis has, until recently, been an impediment to undertaking sophisticated epidemiological studies to assist in the control and eradication of tuberculosis in domestic animals. Molecular biology techniques for mycobacteria have been in development since the mid-1980s, leading to the availability of a number of genetic typing systems for M. bovis. The authors summarise the available techniques, identify those which are most useful at present and those which might prove useful in the future. The present recommendation is to use spoligotyping analysis for rapid, large scale screening of M. bovis isolates, and to use restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis using the polymorphic guanine and cytosine-rich repeat sequences probe where greater differentiation of isolates is required. In the future, systematic analysis of the genome sequence of M. bovis will allow the development of improved techniques that combine good discrimination with ease of use.