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Volume 16, Number 12—December 2010
Dispatch

Mycobacterium tuberculosis Infection of Domesticated Asian Elephants, Thailand

Taweepoke Angkawanish, Worawidh WajjwalkuComments to Author , Anucha Sirimalaisuwan, Thattawan Kaewsakhorn, Kittikorn Boonsri, Victor P.M.G. Rutten, and SittidetMahasawangkul
Author affiliations: Author affiliations: National Elephant Institute, Forest Industry Organization, Lampang, Thailand (T. Angkawanish, S. Mahasawangkul); Kasetsart University, Nakhonpathom, Thailand (W. Wajjwalku); Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, Thailand (A. Sirimalaisuwan, T. Kaewsakhorn, K. Boonsri); Utrecht University, Utrecht, the Netherlands (T. Angkawanish, V.P.M.G. Rutten); University of Pretoria, Onderstepoort, South Africa (V.P.M.G. Rutten)

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Table 2

gyrB gene sequence comparisons of 4 Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates from domesticated Asian elephants, Thailand, 2003–2008*

Organism Gene position
41 122 482 677 776 816 824
M. tuberculosis ATCC C G G T C G C
M. tuberculosis TbD1 C G C T C G C
M. africanum C G G T C T C
M. canetti C G G T C T T
M. microti T G G T C T T
M. bovis C A G T T T T
M. caprae C A G G T T T
Elephant 1 isolate C G C T C G C
Elephant 2 isolate C G G T C G C
Elephant 3 isolate C G G T C G C
Elephant 4 isolate C G G T C G C

*Nucleotide variability at relevant positions of the gyr B gene in the genome of mycobacteria isolated from the 4 infected elephants as compared with those in established M. tuberculosis ATCC 27294 (GenBank accession no. GQ247736.1), M. tuberculosis KPM KY679 (accession no. AB014215.1), M. africanum (accession no. AB014192.1), M. canetti (accession no. AJ749915.1), M. microti (accession no. AB014205.1), M. bovis (accession no. AB018554.1), and M. caprae (accession no. AJ276122.1). Modified from Gutierrez et al. (11). Shading corresponds to sequence stretch in the strains that are identical to the sequences in M. tuberculosis: yellow, performed ATCC strain; blue, position 482 performed TbD1 strain; and tan, performed other M. tuberculosis complex strain. gyrB, gyrase B; ATCC, American Type Culture Collection.

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