Abstract
Listeria monocytogenes is an important foodborne pathogen with a significant impact on public health worldwide. A great number of outbreaks caused by L. monocytogenes has been reported, especially in the United States, and European countries. However, listeriosis has not yet been included in notifiable disease in China, and thus information on this infection has been scarce among the Chinese population. In this study, we described a 3-year surveillance of listeriosis in Beijing, China. Fifty-six L. monocytogenes strains isolated from 49 clinical infectious cases (27 pregnancy-associated infections and 22 non-pregnancy-associated infections) were analyzed by serotyping, pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), multilocus sequence typing (MLST), and antimicrobial susceptibility testing between 2014 and 2016 in Beijing. The predominant serogroups were 1/2a,3a and 1/2b,3b,7 which accounted for 92% of the overall isolates. Four strains were serogroup 4b,4d,4e, isolated from patients with pregnancy-associated infections. Based on PFGE, these isolates were divided into 32 pulsotypes (PTs) and 3 clusters associated with serogroups. Ten PTs were represented by more than one isolate with PT09 containing the most number of isolates. MLST differentiated the isolates into 18 STs, without new ST designated. The three most common STs were ST8 (18.4%), ST5 (16.3%), and ST87 (12.2%), accounting for 46.9% of the isolates. STs prevalent in other parts of the world were also present in China such as ST1, ST2, ST5, ST8, and ST9 which caused maternal fetal infections or outbreaks. However, the STs and serogroup distribution of clinical L. monocytogenes in Beijing, China was different from those in other countries. Strains of ST1 and ST2 were isolated from patients with pregnancy-associated infection, whereas none of ST155 isolates caused pregnancy-associated cases. Surveillance of molecular characterization will provide important information for prevention of listeriosis. This study also enhances our understanding of genetic diversity of clinical L. monocytogenes in China.
Highlights
Listeria monocytogenes is an important foodborne pathogen with a significant impact on public health worldwide (Schlech, 2000; de Noordhout et al, 2014)
We described the characteristics of molecular subtyping and antimicrobial susceptibilities of clinical L. monocytogenes strains in Beijing, the capital city of China
The results showed that there were some differences in clinical L. monocytogenes serogroups distribution between Beijing and other countries
Summary
Listeria monocytogenes is an important foodborne pathogen with a significant impact on public health worldwide (Schlech, 2000; de Noordhout et al, 2014). A previous study reported 1600 human cases of listeriosis annually in the United States, of which 260 resulted in death (Crim et al, 2014). A series of outbreaks caused by L. monocytogenes have been reported, especially in the United States (Fleming et al, 1985; Linnan et al, 1988; Dalton et al, 1997; Gottlieb et al, 2006; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2008; Chen et al, 2017) and European countries (Bula et al, 1995; Ericsson et al, 1997; Goulet et al, 1998; Aureli et al, 2000; Lyytikainen et al, 2000; Althaus et al, 2017; Amato et al, 2017; Dahl et al, 2017; Kleta et al, 2017). Listeriosis has not yet been regulated as a notifiable disease in China and information on this infection has been largely scarce among the Chinese population
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