Epidemiological tracing of bovine tuberculosis in Switzerland, multilocus variable number of tandem repeat analysis of Mycobacterium bovis and Mycobacterium caprae.

The present study is the first MIRU-VNTR analysis of Swiss bTB mycobacterial isolates. The genotyping assay was found to be highly discriminating and suitable for the epidemiological tracing of further outbreaks. These findings will contribute to the development of an international MIRU-VNTR database aiming to improve bTB surveillance.