A Unique Isolation of a Lytic Bacteriophage Infected Bacillus anthracis Isolate from Pafuri, South Africa.

ABSTRACT: Bacillus anthracis is a soil-borne, Gram-positive endospore-forming bacterium and the causative agent of anthrax. It is enzootic in Pafuri, Kruger National Park in South Africa. The bacterium is amplified in a wild ungulate host, which then becomes a source of infection to the next host upon its death. The exact mechanisms involving the onset (index case) and termination of an outbreak are poorly understood, in part due to a paucity of information about the soil-based component of the bacterium's lifecycle. In this study, we present the unique isolation of a dsDNA bacteriophage from a wildebeest carcass site suspected of having succumbed to anthrax. The aggressively lytic bacteriophage hampered the initial isolation of B. anthracis from samples collected at the carcass site.

SUBMITTER: Hassim A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7356010 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature