@article {14, title = {Persistence of Mycobacterium ulcerans disease (Buruli Ulcer) in the historical focus of Kasongo Territory, the Democratic Republic of Congo.}, journal = {Am J Trop Med Hyg}, volume = {81}, year = {2009}, month = {2009 Nov}, pages = {888-94}, abstract = {

Fifty years after the last report of Mycobacterium ulcerans infections (Buruli ulcer [BU]) in Kasongo Territory, Maniema Province, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), we conducted a small-scale cross-sectional survey to assess if this historical BU focus was still active and if so to explore the disease epidemiology. Seventy-five active and inactive BU cases were identified on clinical grounds of which two of 28 BU active cases were laboratory confirmed. We used a modified BU02 form to reconstruct the local disease dynamics and we believe that the horrific conflict in eastern DRC and exceptional flooding were the most likely causes of the re-emergence of the disease. There is a need in the DRC to decentralize and integrate surveillance and control activities at local level to increase the effectiveness of patient management.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Age Distribution, Aged, Buruli Ulcer, Child, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Female, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Mycobacterium ulcerans, Sex Characteristics, Young Adult}, issn = {1476-1645}, doi = {10.4269/ajtmh.2009.09-0049}, author = {Suykerbuyk, Patrick and Wambacq, Julie and Phanzu, Delphin M and Haruna, Hemedi and Nakazawa, Yoshinori and Ooms, Kristien and Kamango, Kalambo and Stragier, Pieter and Singa, Jackie N and Ekwanzala, Florent and De Herdt, Eric and De Maeyer, Philippe and Kestens, Luc and Portaels, Fran{\c c}oise} } @article {16, title = {Usefulness of the European Epidemic Intelligence Information System in the management of an outbreak of listeriosis, Belgium, 2011.}, journal = {Euro Surveill}, volume = {17}, year = {2012}, month = {2012}, abstract = {

A cluster of time-linked cases and the identification of a clonal strain suggest the occurrence of an outbreak of listeriosis in Belgium in 2011, presumably due to the consumption of hard cheese made with pasteurised milk and produced by a Belgium manufacturer. The outbreak clone was identified as Listeria monocytogenes serovar 1/2a, sensitive to arsenic and cadmium and of multilocus sequence typing MLST-type 37. Food investigation of this outbreak was facilitated by the European Epidemic Intelligence Information System and data exchanged between French and Belgium listeriosis surveillance systems.

}, keywords = {Aged, Aged, 80 and over, Arsenites, Bacterial Typing Techniques, Belgium, Cadmium Chloride, Cluster Analysis, Disease Outbreaks, Drug Resistance, Microbial, Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field, Europe, Female, Foodborne Diseases, Geographic Information Systems, Hospitalization, Humans, Information Dissemination, Listeria monocytogenes, Listeriosis, Male, Microbial Sensitivity Tests, Middle Aged, Molecular Sequence Data, Population Surveillance}, issn = {1560-7917}, author = {Yde, M and Naranjo, M and Mattheus, W and Stragier, P and Pochet, B and Beulens, K and De Schrijver, K and Van den Branden, D and Laisnez, V and Flipse, W and Leclercq, A and Lecuit, M and Dierick, K and Bertrand, S} } @article {6, title = {Evidence for an intramacrophage growth phase of Mycobacterium ulcerans.}, journal = {Infect Immun}, volume = {75}, year = {2007}, month = {2007 Feb}, pages = {977-87}, abstract = {

Mycobacterium ulcerans is the etiologic agent of Buruli ulcer (BU), an emerging tropical skin disease. Virulent M. ulcerans secretes mycolactone, a cytotoxic exotoxin with a key pathogenic role. M. ulcerans in biopsy specimens has been described as an extracellular bacillus. In vitro assays have suggested a mycolactone-induced inhibition of M. ulcerans uptake by macrophages in which its proliferation has not been demonstrated. Therefore, and uniquely for a mycobacterium, M. ulcerans has been classified as an extracellular pathogen. In specimens from patients and in mouse footpad lesions, extracellular bacilli were concentrated in central necrotic acellular areas; however, we found bacilli within macrophages in surrounding inflammatory infiltrates. We demonstrated that mycolactone-producing M. ulcerans isolates are efficiently phagocytosed by murine macrophages, indicating that the extracellular location of M. ulcerans is not a result of inhibition of phagocytosis. Additionally, we found that M. ulcerans multiplies inside cultured mouse macrophages when low multiplicities of infection are used to prevent early mycolactone-associated cytotoxicity. Following the proliferation phase within macrophages, M. ulcerans induces the lysis of the infected host cells, becoming extracellular. Our data show that M. ulcerans, like M. tuberculosis, is an intracellular parasite with phases of intramacrophage and extracellular multiplication. The occurrence of an intramacrophage phase is in accordance with the development of cell-mediated and delayed-type hypersensitivity responses in BU patients.

}, keywords = {Animals, Bacterial Toxins, Cells, Cultured, Disease Models, Animal, Female, Foot, Histocytochemistry, Humans, Macrolides, Macrophages, Mice, Mice, Inbred BALB C, Microscopy, Electron, Transmission, Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous, Mycobacterium ulcerans, Phagocytosis, Skin Diseases, Bacterial, Skin Ulcer}, issn = {0019-9567}, doi = {10.1128/IAI.00889-06}, author = {Torrado, Eg{\'\i}dio and Fraga, Alexandra G and Castro, Ant{\'o}nio G and Stragier, Pieter and Meyers, Wayne M and Portaels, Fran{\c c}oise and Silva, Manuel T and Pedrosa, Jorge} } @article {10, title = {First cultivation and characterization of Mycobacterium ulcerans from the environment.}, journal = {PLoS Negl Trop Dis}, volume = {2}, year = {2008}, month = {2008}, pages = {e178}, abstract = {

BACKGROUND: Mycobacterium ulcerans disease, or Buruli ulcer (BU), is an indolent, necrotizing infection of skin, subcutaneous tissue and, occasionally, bones. It is the third most common human mycobacteriosis worldwide, after tuberculosis and leprosy. There is evidence that M. ulcerans is an environmental pathogen transmitted to humans from aquatic niches; however, well-characterized pure cultures of M. ulcerans from the environment have never been reported. Here we present details of the isolation and characterization of an M. ulcerans strain (00-1441) obtained from an aquatic Hemiptera (common name Water Strider, Gerris sp.) from Benin.

METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: One culture from a homogenate of a Gerris sp. in BACTEC became positive for IS2404, an insertion sequence with more than 200 copies in M. ulcerans. A pure culture of M. ulcerans 00-1441 was obtained on L{\"o}wenstein-Jensen medium after inoculation of BACTEC culture in mouse footpads followed by two other mouse footpad passages. The phenotypic characteristics of 00-1441 were identical to those of African M. ulcerans, including production of mycolactone A/B. The nucleotide sequence of the 5{\textquoteright} end of 16S rRNA gene of 00-1441 was 100\% identical to M. ulcerans and M. marinum, and the sequence of the 3{\textquoteright} end was identical to that of the African type except for a single nucleotide substitution at position 1317. This mutation in M. ulcerans was recently discovered in BU patients living in the same geographic area. Various genotyping methods confirmed that strain 00-1441 has a profile identical to that of the predominant African type. Strain 00-1441 produced severe progressive infection and disease in mouse footpads with involvement of bone.

CONCLUSION: Strain 00-1441 represents the first genetically and phenotypically identified strain of M. ulcerans isolated in pure culture from the environment. This isolation supports the concept that the agent of BU is a human pathogen with an environmental niche.

}, keywords = {Animals, Bacterial Toxins, Cells, Cultured, Environmental Microbiology, Female, Foot, Genotype, Hemiptera, Macrolides, Macrophages, Mass Spectrometry, Mice, Mice, Inbred BALB C, Mycobacterium ulcerans, Phylogeny, Polymerase Chain Reaction, RNA, Ribosomal, 16S}, issn = {1935-2735}, doi = {10.1371/journal.pntd.0000178}, author = {Portaels, Fran{\c c}oise and Meyers, Wayne M and Ablordey, Anthony and Castro, Ant{\'o}nio G and Chemlal, Karim and de Rijk, Pim and Elsen, Pierre and Fissette, Krista and Fraga, Alexandra G and Lee, Richard and Mahrous, Engy and Small, Pamela L C and Stragier, Pieter and Torrado, Eg{\'\i}dio and Van Aerde, Anita and Silva, Manuel T and Pedrosa, Jorge} } @article {1, title = {Genetic diversity and population structure of Mycobacterium marinum: new insights into host and environmental specificities.}, journal = {J Clin Microbiol}, volume = {50}, year = {2012}, pages = {3627-34}, abstract = {

Mycobacterium marinum causes a systemic tuberculosis-like disease in fish and skin infections in humans that can spread to deeper structures, resulting in tenosynovitis, arthritis, and osteomyelitis. However, little information is available concerning (i) the intraspecific genetic diversity of M. marinum isolated from humans and animals; (ii) M. marinum genotype circulation in the different ecosystems, and (iii) the link between M. marinum genetic diversity and hosts (humans and fish). Here, we conducted a genetic study on 89 M. marinum isolates from humans (n = 68) and fish (n = 21) by using mycobacterial interspersed repetitive units-variable number of tandem repeats (MIRU-VNTR) typing. The results show that the M. marinum population is genetically structured not only according to the host but also according to the ecosystem as well as to tissue tropism in humans. This suggests the existence of different genetic pools in the function of the biological and ecological compartments. Moreover, the presence of only certain M. marinum genotypes in humans suggests a different zoonotic potential of the M. marinum genotypes. Considering that the infection is linked to aquarium activity, a significant genetic difference was also detected when the human tissue tropism of M. marinum was taken into consideration, with a higher genetic polymorphism in strains isolated from patients with cutaneous forms than from individuals with deeper-structure infection. It appears that only few genotypes can produce deeper infections in humans, suggesting that the immune system might play a filtering role.

}, keywords = {Adolescent, Adult, Aged, Animals, Biota, Child, Child, Preschool, DNA, Bacterial, Female, Fish Diseases, Fishes, Genetic Variation, Genotype, Humans, Interspersed Repetitive Sequences, Male, Middle Aged, Molecular Typing, Mycobacterium Infections, Nontuberculous, Mycobacterium marinum, Young Adult}, issn = {1098-660X}, doi = {10.1128/JCM.01274-12}, author = {Broutin, Vincent and Ba{\~n}uls, Anne-Laure and Aubry, Alexandra and Keck, Nicolas and Choisy, Marc and Bernardet, Jean-Fran{\c c}ois and Michel, Christian and Raymond, Jean-Christophe and Libert, C{\'e}dric and Barnaud, Antoine and Stragier, Pieter and Portaels, Fran{\c c}oise and Terru, Dominique and Belon, Claudine and Dereure, Olivier and Gutierrez, Cristina and Boschiroli, Maria-Laura and Van De Perre, Philippe and Cambau, Emmanuelle and Godreuil, Sylvain} }