Diversity of Bacillus anthracis strains in Georgia and of vaccine strains from the former Soviet Union.

Despite the increased number of anthrax outbreaks in Georgia and the other Caucasian republics of the former Soviet Union, no data are available on the diversity of the Bacillus anthracis strains involved. There is also little data available on strains from the former Soviet Union, including the strains previously used for vaccine preparation. In this study we used eight-locus variable-number tandem repeat analyses to genotype 18 strains isolated from infected animals and humans at different sites across Georgia, where anthrax outbreaks have occurred in the last 10 years, and 5 strains widely used for preparation of human and veterinary vaccines in the former Soviet Union.