A snapshot of genetic lineages of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Ireland over a two-year period, 2010 and 2011

M M Fitzgibbon; N Gibbons; E Roycroft; S Jackson; J O’Donnell; D O’Flanagan; T R Rogers

doi:10.2807/ese.18.03.20367-en

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A snapshot of genetic lineages of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Ireland over a two-year period, 2010 and 2011
M M Fitzgibbon¹ , N Gibbons¹ , E Roycroft^1,2 , S Jackson³ , J O’Donnell³ , D O’Flanagan³ , T R Rogers^1,2
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Affiliations: ¹ Irish Mycobacteria Reference Laboratory, St. James’ Hospital, Dublin, Ireland ² Department of Clinical Microbiology, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland ³ Health Protection Surveillance Centre, Dublin, Ireland

Correspondence:
M Fitzgibbon
MFitzgibbon STJAMES.IE
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Citation style for this article: Fitzgibbon M M, Gibbons N, Roycroft E, Jackson S, O’Donnell J, O’Flanagan D, Rogers T R. A snapshot of genetic lineages of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in Ireland over a two-year period, 2010 and 2011. Euro Surveill. 2013;18(3):pii=20367. https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.18.03.20367-en Received: 09 Jul 2012

Abstract

Mycobacterial interspersed repetitive-unit-variable-number tandem repeat typing alone was used to investigate the genetic lineages among 361 Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains circulating in Ireland over a two-year period, 2010 and 2011. The majority of isolates, 63% (229/361), belonged to lineage 4 (Euro-American), while lineages 1 (Indo-Oceanic), 2 (East-Asian) and 3 (East-African-Indian) represented 12% of isolates each (42/361, 45/361, and 45/361, respectively). Sub-lineages Beijing (lineage 2), East-African-Indian (lineage 1) and Delhi/central-Asian (lineage 3) predominated among foreign-born cases, while a higher proportion of Euro-American lineages were identified among cases born in Ireland. Eighteen molecular clusters involving 63 tuberculosis (TB) cases were identified across four sub-lineages of lineage 4. While the mean cluster size was 3.5 TB cases, the largest cluster (involving 12 Irish-born cases) was identified in the Latin American-Mediterranean sub-lineage. Clustering of isolates was higher among Irish-born TB cases (47 of 63 clustered cases), whereas only one cluster (3/63) involved solely foreign-born individuals. Four multidrug-resistant cases identified during this period represented lineages 2 and 4. This study provides the first insight into the structure of the M. tuberculosis population in Ireland. .