The Doctor and His Bag

Abstract

<h3>Abstract</h3> <i>Salmonella enterica</i> serovar Enteritidis (SE), the most commonly reported serovar of human salmonellosis, has been frequently associated with poultry farms, eggs and egg products. Mice are known vectors of SE contamination in these facilities. The objective of this study was to use whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to analyze SE from mice obtained at poultry farms in Pennsylvania. Documenting pathogen diversity can identify reliable biomarkers for rapid detection and speed up outbreak investigations. We sequenced 91 SE isolates from 83 mice (62 spleen isolates, 29 intestinal isolates) caught at 15 poultry farms between 1995-1998 using an Illumina NextSeq 500. We identified 742 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) capable of distinguishing each isolate from one another. Isolates were divided into two major clades: there were more SNPs differences within Clade B than counterparts in Clade A. All isolates containing antimicrobial resistance genes belong to Subgroup B2. Clade-defining SNPs provided biomarkers distinguishing isolates from 12 individual subgroups, which were separated by farm location or year of collection. Nonsynonymous changes from the clade-defining SNPs proffered a better understanding of possible genetic variations among these isolates. For a broader view of SE diversity, we included data from NCBI Pathogen Detection Isolates Browser, in which subgroups in Clade B formed new SNP Clusters. <h3>Importance</h3> WGS and SNPs analyses are excellent and powerful tools for investigating SE phylogenies. Identifying the evolutionary relationships among SE isolates from mouse, poultry, environmental, and clinical isolates, along with patterns of genetic diversity, advances understanding of SE and the role mice may play in SE contamination and spread among poultry population. Our data was able to identify SE isolates from different farms or years of collection. Moreover, the annotations of clade-defining SNPs provided information about possible protein functions among these SE isolates from each subgroup. Clade-defining or farm-unique biomarkers were useful for rapid detection and outbreak investigations.