ISSN: 0973-7510

E-ISSN: 2581-690X

Dong-Uk Kim1,3, Sang-Gu Yeo2, Kyoung-Ah Baek1, Shien-Young Kang3, Myoung-Hee Shin1, Joon-Soo Park4, Jae-Kyung Kim6, Kwi-Sung Park1, Kyoung-Ah Yoon7 and Young-Jin Choi5
1Chungcheongnam-Do Institute of Health and Environment Research, Daejeon, 300801 Korea.
2Division of Vaccine Research, Center for infectious diseases, National Institute of Health, Korea Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Osong, 363700 Korea.
3College of Veterinary Medicine, Chungbuk National University, Cheongju, 361763 Korea.
4Departments of Pediatrics, and College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, 330721 Korea.
5Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, Soonchunhyang University, Cheonan, 330721 Korea.
6Department of Laboratory Medicine, College of Medicine, Dankook University, Cheonan, 330715 Korea.
7Department of Clinical Pathology, Daejeon Health Sciences College, Daejeon, 300711 Korea.
J Pure Appl Microbiol. 2014;8(5):3397-3409
© The Author(s). 2014
Received: 26/03/2014 | Accepted: 12/05/2014 | Published: 31/10/2014
Abstract

With the increase in population visiting hot water systems such as spas and water parks, the opportunity to be exposed to the risk of legionellae’s infection is rising in Chungnam, Korea. So, we investigated Legionella contamination and its population on environmental sources for assessing the relationships in the types of facilities and water sources. PCR and culture method were used to detect and isolate Legionella spp. Partial 16s rRNA and rpoB gene sequences were used to identify the isolates and determine subspecies of Legionella pneumophila isolates. The detection rate (29%) of Legionella spp. from public bathes was the highest and L. pneumophila was the dominant species in Chungnam, Korea. L. pneumophila isolates used in this study were divided into subsp. pneumophila and subsp. fraseri. All of Legionella species isolated in this study except for L. nautarum were pathogenic to human. L. pneumophila isolates used in this study were divided into subsp. pneumophila and subsp. fraseri. Results of identification between rpoB and 16s rRNA trees were nearly consistent, except for some isolates. Our findings will be helpful to create a better understanding of the molecular basis of Legionella and further preventing and controlling outbreaks by legionellosis.

Keywords

legionella, identification, subtyping, spa, cooling tower

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© The Author(s) 2014. Open Access. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License which permits unrestricted use, sharing, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.