ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Infectious Agents and Disease
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1603770
This article is part of the Research TopicZoonotic Diseases: Epidemiology, Multi-omics, and Host-pathogen Interactions Vol IIView all articles
The genotypic characterization of Streptococcus pluranimalium from aborted bovine fetuses in British Columbia, Canada
Provisionally accepted
- 1Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada
- 2Animal Health Center, Abbotsford, British Columbia, Canada
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Bovine abortions result in significant economic loss to dairy producers. Bacteria are among the most common causes of bovine abortion. In 2021, Streptococcus pluranimalium was isolated from a dairy abortion for the first time in British Columbia, Canada. Between 2021 and 2023, S. pluranimalium was isolated from placenta, fetal lung, and/or fetal abomasal content from 10 aborted dairy fetuses submitted for routine abortion diagnostics. This bacterium has previously been recovered from the reproductive tracts of dairy cattle and a variety of other species, including humans. This study was undertaken to better characterize the genotype of these 10 isolates. The British Columbia (BC) strains were sequenced using Nanopore technology and had an average genome size of 2,313,582 base pairs and an average GC content of 38.59%. Based on the whole genome phylogeny, our studied strains clustered together and separated from the other publicly available strains of this species from other regions and isolation sources. Using Clusters of Orthologous Genes analysis, the BC strains contained a larger proportion of genes associated with the mobilome. Additionally, while few antibiotic-resistant genes or virulence factors were found in the strains, several of these genes were located on prophage sequences. While the clinical and pathologic significance of these bacteria in most of these abortion cases remains unclear, our findings underscore the importance of continued surveillance and research into uncommon pathogens to better understand their biology and potential impact on human and animal health.
Keywords: Streptococcus pluranimalium 1, Bovine abortion2, whole genome sequencing3, Antimicrobial resistance (AMR)4, animal health5
Received: 01 Apr 2025; Accepted: 28 Apr 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Yee, Trimble, Ghosh, Raverty, McGregor and Hsiao. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: William W.L. Hsiao, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, Canada
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