SEROTYPING OF CANADIAN ISOLATES OF TREPONEMA-HYODYSENTERIAE AND DESCRIPTION OF 2 NEW SEROTYPES

A total of 30 isolates of Treponema hyodysenteriae collected in the Saint-Hyacinthe (Quebec, Canada) area were serotyped by agar gel double immunodiffusion by using extracted lipopolysaccharide and hyperimmune rabbit antisera. Only 17% (5 of 30) of the isolates were typed with antisera specific for each of the seven known serotypes of T. hyodysenteriae. Antisera raised against 11 untypeable local isolates were then produced and tested against each lipopolysaccharide extract. Results showed two serologically distinct groups among 21 of the 25 untypeable isolates. The isolates in each group shared identical antigens. No detectable reactions could be observed between antisera raised against these 11 isolates and the antigens extracted from 7 reference serotype strains. On the basis of these results, two new serotypes of T. hyodysenteriae, serotypes 8 and 9, are proposed. We also propose isolate FM 88-90 as the reference strain for serotype 8 and isolate FMV 89-3323 as the reference strain for serotype 9. These two new serotypes, which represented 70% of the isolates tested, seem to be the major serotypes found in the province of Quebec.