CHARACTERIZATION OF SERPULINA-HYODYSENTERIAE ISOLATES OF SEROTYPE-8 AND SEROTYPE-9 FROM QUEBEC BY RESTRICTION-ENDONUCLEASE FINGERPRINTING AND RIBOTYPING

This study was undertaken to assess the discriminatory value of restri ction endonuclease fingerprinting (REF) analysis and ribotyping of 21 Serpulina hyodysenteriae isolates of serotypes 8 and 9. For REF analys is, DNAs were digested with the BglII restriction enzyme and the resul tant fragments were separated by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis. F or ribotyping, hybridization of BglII genomic fragments with a probe o f rrnB operon using an Escherichia coli rDNA probe was performed on al l isolates. Although many isolates shared a common pattern by BglII RE F and BglII ribotyping analysis, differences among some S. hyodysenter iae isolates were observed. REF and ribotyping using BglII restriction enzyme, were not specific for serotypes. The predominance of an REF a nd a ribotype pattern among S. hyodysenteriae isolates from Quebec sug gested that epidemiologically important S. hyodysenteriae types occur in different swine herds.