Stability of genotyping targets in Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) upon cultivation on different media, in vitro- and in vivo passage, and natural infection

MAP - the causative agent of Paratuberculosis - affects domestic and wild ruminants worldwide. Recently, we suggested a combination of different typing techniques to yield a suffi cient discriminatory power for exhaustive epidemiological studies. In order to challenge the reliability of this approach the stability of defi ned MAP genotypes was investigated after: (A) sub-cultivation on six different media, (B) 12 in vitro passages, and (C) in vivo (goat) passage. Various sub-cultures of type, reference and 24 field strains as well as inoculation strain re-isolated from different tissues of 11 goats were genotyped by MIRuvNTR-, SSR-, and IS900-RFLP-analysis. Results were compared with initial genotypes. [...]