One hypervirulent clone, sequence type 283, accounts for a large proportion of invasive Streptococcus agalactiae isolated from humans and diseased tilapia in Southeast Asia.
Timothy Mark Sebastian BarkhamRuth N ZadoksMohammad Noor Amal AzmaiStephen BakerVu Thi Ngoc BichVictoria ChalkerMan Ling ChauDavid A B DanceRama Narayana DeepakH Rogier van DoornRamona A GutierrezMark A HolmesLan Nguyen Phu HuongTse Hsien KohElisabete MartinsKurosh MehershahiPaul NewtonLee Ching NgNguyen Ngoc PhuocOrnuma SangwichianPongpun SawatwongUraiwan SurinThean Yen TanWen Ying TangNguyen Vu ThuyPaul TurnerManivanh VongsouvathDefeng ZhangToni WhistlerSwaine L ChenPublished in: PLoS neglected tropical diseases (2019)
GBS ST283 is widespread in Southeast Asia, where it accounts for a large proportion of bacteraemic GBS, and causes disease and economic loss in aquaculture. If human ST283 is fishborne, as in the Singapore outbreak, then GBS sepsis in Thailand and Lao PDR is predominantly a foodborne disease. However, whether transmission is from aquaculture to humans, or vice versa, or involves an unidentified reservoir remains unknown. Creation of cross-border collaborations in human and animal health are needed to complete the epidemiological picture.