[Characterization of Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains prevalent in North-West of Russia by spoligotyping].

Spoligotyping was used for genotyping of 238 M. tuberculosis cultures isolated from 302 patients with pulmonary tuberculosis living in the north-west of Russia, including those in Saint Petersburg, in 1998-2001, and the M. tuberculosis strains H37Rv, M. bovis, and M. bovic BCG and M. tuberculosis in the specimens painted for microscopy. The quality of spoligotyping was high and similar to that when DNA from the cultured mycobacteria and slide scrapes. The findings were compared with the data available in the International database. There was heterogenicity in the microbial population: the clinical strains showed 58 (RO-R57) types of profiles, of them 56% were revealed in single cases. The spoligotype RO(1; S1) was found in 153 (51%) patients. This spoligotype is predominant in the world and characteristic of polyresistant high-transmissive strains of the genetic family Beijing. The spoligotypes R24 (251), R14 (252), and R8 (253) first described by the authors are now encountered only in Russia. To extend the Russian database that contains M. tuberculosis spologotyping profiles from different regions will promote the improvement of an epidemiological surveillance system and tuberculosis control programmes not only within administrative territorial entities, but also within the whole country.