Application of Modern Techniques for Studying Bacterial Pathogens in Georgia

Abstract

Over the last few years several molecular methods for rapid identification and fingerprinting of different pathogens have been applied at the National Center for Disease Control and Public health of Georgia (NCDC). These modern techniques strengthen the NCDC Georgia laboratory’s capabilities to rapidly respond to urgent public health threats and assist in the detection and tracking of these diseases. Application of genotyping techniques for investigation of NCDC Live Culture Collections enables Georgian public health scientists to determine the extent of strain variability as well as define the ability of new molecular techniques to characterize potential biothreat organisms circulating in the wild. Molecular methods, such as pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), IS (insertion sequence) element fingerprinting, multiple-locus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) have been applied at NCDC in order to characterize bacterial isolates of Yersinis pestis and Francisella tularensis obtained from a variety of different foci. Such characterization has helped close a significant gap in our knowledge of strains present in this geographical region.