Abstract
Streptococcus suis is a zoonotic swine pathogen and a major public health concern in Asia, where it emerged as an important cause of bacterial meningitis in adults. While associated with food-borne transmission in Asia, zoonotic S. suis infections are mainly occupational hazards elsewhere. To identify genomic differences that can explain zoonotic potential, we compared whole genomes of 98 S. suis isolates from human patients and pigs with invasive disease in the Netherlands, and validated our observations with 18 complete and publicly available sequences. Zoonotic isolates have smaller genomes than non-zoonotic isolates, but contain more virulence factors. We identified a zoonotic S. suis clone that diverged from a non-zoonotic clone by means of gene loss, a capsule switch, and acquisition of a two-component signalling system in the late 19th century, when foreign pig breeds were introduced. Our results indicate that zoonotic potential of S. suis results from gene loss, recombination and horizontal gene transfer events.
Highlights
Streptococcus suis is a zoonotic swine pathogen and a major public health concern in Asia, where it emerged as an important cause of bacterial meningitis in adults
Outbreaks of human infection have occurred in China in 1998 and 20059, a high incidence rate of meningitis and sepsis was reported from Thailand[7], and S. suis infection is the leading cause of bacterial meningitis in adults in Vietnam and Hong Kong[10]
Whilst serotype 2 (CC1 and CC20) is the only S. suis serotype isolated from human patients in the Netherlands, the most prevalent serotype causing invasive disease in the Dutch pig population is serotype 9 (CC16)[11]
Summary
Streptococcus suis is a zoonotic swine pathogen and a major public health concern in Asia, where it emerged as an important cause of bacterial meningitis in adults. Streptococcus suis (S. suis) is a zoonotic swine pathogen which is carried asymptomatically by up to 80% of healthy pigs[1,2,3], and a major public health concern in China and South-East Asia[4,5,6,7,8] causing severe disease in humans including meningitis and septicaemia. Whilst serotype 2 (CC1 and CC20) is the only S. suis serotype isolated from human patients in the Netherlands, the most prevalent serotype causing invasive disease in the Dutch pig population is serotype 9 (CC16)[11]. The isolate collection was not suitable to explore genomic differences that could explain zoonotic potential of S. suis because of the high similarity with respect to serotype and genotype, between the Vietnamese zoonotic isolates and the limited number of porcine isolates from Vietnam
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