scholarly journals Proficiency Testing for bacterial whole genome sequencing in assuring the quality of microbiology diagnostics in clinical and public health laboratories

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine A. Lau ◽  
Anders Gonçalves da Silva ◽  
Torsten Theis ◽  
Joanna Gray ◽  
Susan A Ballard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Whole Genome Sequencing ◽  
Proficiency Testing ◽  
Genome Sequencing ◽  
Clinical Microbiology ◽  
Quality Data ◽  
Valuable Insight ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Minimum Requirements

ABSTRACTThe adoption of whole genome sequencing (WGS) data over the past decade for pathogen surveillance, and decision-making for infectious diseases has rapidly transformed the landscape of clinical microbiology and public health. However, for successful transition to routine use of these techniques, it is crucial to ensure the WGS data generated meet defined quality standards for pathogen identification, typing, antimicrobial resistance detection and surveillance. Further, the ongoing development of these standards will ensure that the bioinformatic processes are capable of accurately identifying and characterising organisms of interest, and thereby facilitate the integration of WGS into routine clinical and public health laboratory setting. A pilot proficiency testing (PT) program for WGS of infectious agents was developed to facilitate widely applicable standardisation and benchmarking standards for WGS across a range of laboratories. The PT participating laboratories were required to generate WGS data from two bacterial isolates, and submit the raw data for independent bioinformatics analysis, as well as analyse the data with their own processes and answer relevant questions about the data. Overall, laboratories used a diverse range of bioinformatics tools and could generate and analyse high-quality data, either meeting or exceeding the minimum requirements. This pilot has provided valuable insight into the current state of genomics in clinical microbiology and public health laboratories across Australia. It will provide a baseline guide for the standardisation of WGS and enable the development of a PT program that allows an ongoing performance benchmark for accreditation of WGS-based test processes.

scholarly journals Proficiency testing for bacterial whole genome sequencing in assuring the quality of microbiology diagnostics in clinical and public health laboratories

Pathology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine A. Lau ◽  
Anders Gonçalves da Silva ◽  
Torsten Theis ◽  
Joanna Gray ◽  
Susan A. Ballard ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Whole Genome Sequencing ◽  
Proficiency Testing ◽  
Genome Sequencing ◽  
Whole Genome

scholarly journals Expanding U.S. Laboratory Capacity for Neisseria gonorrhoeae Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing and Whole-Genome Sequencing through the CDC's Antibiotic Resistance Laboratory Network

2020 ◽  
Vol 58 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ellen N. Kersh ◽  
Cau D. Pham ◽  
John R. Papp ◽  
Robert Myers ◽  
Richard Steece ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Antibiotic Resistance ◽  
Neisseria Gonorrhoeae ◽  
Whole Genome Sequencing ◽  
Genome Sequencing ◽  
Antimicrobial Susceptibility ◽  
Susceptibility Testing ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Laboratory Capacity

ABSTRACT U.S. gonorrhea rates are rising, and antibiotic-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae (AR-Ng) is an urgent public health threat. Since implementation of nucleic acid amplification tests for N. gonorrhoeae identification, the capacity for culturing N. gonorrhoeae in the United States has declined, along with the ability to perform culture-based antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST). Yet AST is critical for detecting and monitoring AR-Ng. In 2016, the CDC established the Antibiotic Resistance Laboratory Network (AR Lab Network) to shore up the national capacity for detecting several resistance threats including N. gonorrhoeae. AR-Ng testing, a subactivity of the CDC’s AR Lab Network, is performed in a tiered network of approximately 35 local laboratories, four regional laboratories (state public health laboratories in Maryland, Tennessee, Texas, and Washington), and the CDC’s national reference laboratory. Local laboratories receive specimens from approximately 60 clinics associated with the Gonococcal Isolate Surveillance Project (GISP), enhanced GISP (eGISP), and the program Strengthening the U.S. Response to Resistant Gonorrhea (SURRG). They isolate and ship up to 20,000 isolates to regional laboratories for culture-based agar dilution AST with seven antibiotics and for whole-genome sequencing of up to 5,000 isolates. The CDC further examines concerning isolates and monitors genetic AR markers. During 2017 and 2018, the network tested 8,214 and 8,628 N. gonorrhoeae isolates, respectively, and the CDC received 531 and 646 concerning isolates and 605 and 3,159 sequences, respectively. In summary, the AR Lab Network supported the laboratory capacity for N. gonorrhoeae AST and associated genetic marker detection, expanding preexisting notification and analysis systems for resistance detection. Continued, robust AST and genomic capacity can help inform national public health monitoring and intervention.

scholarly journals A common protocol for the simultaneous processing of multiple clinically relevant bacterial species for whole genome sequencing

2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathy E. Raven ◽  
Sophia T. Girgis ◽  
Asha Akram ◽  
Beth Blane ◽  
Danielle Leek ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Whole Genome Sequencing ◽  
Dna Extraction ◽  
Genome Sequencing ◽  
Clinical Microbiology ◽  
Bacterial Species ◽  
Outbreak Detection ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
Library Preparation ◽  
Simultaneous Processing ◽  
Antimicrobial Resistance Gene

AbstractWhole-genome sequencing is likely to become increasingly used by local clinical microbiology laboratories, where sequencing volume is low compared with national reference laboratories. Here, we describe a universal protocol for simultaneous DNA extraction and sequencing of numerous different bacterial species, allowing mixed species sequence runs to meet variable laboratory demand. We assembled test panels representing 20 clinically relevant bacterial species. The DNA extraction process used the QIAamp mini DNA kit, to which different combinations of reagents were added. Thereafter, a common protocol was used for library preparation and sequencing. The addition of lysostaphin, lysozyme or buffer ATL (a tissue lysis buffer) alone did not produce sufficient DNA for library preparation across the species tested. By contrast, lysozyme plus lysostaphin produced sufficient DNA across all 20 species. DNA from 15 of 20 species could be extracted from a 24-h culture plate, while the remainder required 48–72 h. The process demonstrated 100% reproducibility. Sequencing of the resulting DNA was used to recapitulate previous findings for species, outbreak detection, antimicrobial resistance gene detection and capsular type. This single protocol for simultaneous processing and sequencing of multiple bacterial species supports low volume and rapid turnaround time by local clinical microbiology laboratories.

scholarly journals Evaluation of whole genome sequencing for the identification and typing of Vibrio cholerae

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Greig ◽  
Ulf Schafer ◽  
Sophie Octavia ◽  
Ebony Hunter ◽  
Marie A. Chattaway ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Whole Genome Sequencing ◽  
Vibrio Cholerae ◽  
Species Identification ◽  
Genome Sequencing ◽  
National Level ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
Surveillance Programs ◽  
El Tor ◽  
The Impact

AbstractEpidemiological and microbiological data on Vibrio cholerae isolated between 2004 and 2017 (n=836) and held in the Public Health England culture archive were reviewed. The traditional biochemical species identification and serological typing results were compared with the genome derived species identification and serotype for a sub-set of isolates (n=152). Of the 836 isolates, 750 (89.7%) were from faecal specimens, 206 (24.6%) belonged to serogroup O1 and seven (0.8%) were serogroup O139, and 792 (94.7%) isolates from patients reporting recent travel abroad, most commonly to India (n=209) and Pakistan (n=104). Of the 152 isolates of V. cholerae speciated by kmer identification, 149 (98.1%) were concordant with the traditional biochemical approach. Traditional serotyping results were 100% concordant with the whole genome sequencing (WGS) analysis for identification of serogroups O1 and O139 and Classical and El Tor biotypes. ctxA was detected in all isolates of V. cholerae O1 El Tor and O139 belonging to sequence type (ST) 69, and in V. cholerae O1 Classical variants belonging to ST73. A phylogeny of isolates belonging to ST69 from UK travellers clustered geographically, with isolates from India and Pakistan located on separate branches. Moving forward, WGS data from UK travellers will contribute to global surveillance programs, and the monitoring of emerging threats to public health and the global dissemination of pathogenic lineages. At the national level, these WGS data will inform the timely reinforcement of direct public health messaging to travellers and mitigate the impact of imported infections and the associated risks to public health.

scholarly journals Whole genome sequencing based differentiation between re-infection and relapse in Indian patients with tuberculosis recurrence, with and without HIV co-infection

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sivakumar Shanmugam ◽  
Nathan L Bachmann ◽  
Elena Martinez ◽  
Ranjeeta Menon ◽  
Gopalan Narendran ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Whole Genome Sequencing ◽  
Genome Sequencing ◽  
Repeat Unit ◽  
Hiv Positive ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
Immunodeficiency Virus ◽  
High Contribution ◽  
Tuberculosis Recurrence ◽  
Hiv Negative

AbstractDifferentiation between relapse and reinfection in cases with tuberculosis (TB) recurrence has important implications for public health, especially in patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) co-infection. Forty-one paired M. tuberculosis isolates collected from 20 HIV-positive and 21 HIV-negative patients, who experienced TB recurrence after previous successful treatment, were subjected to whole genome sequencing (WGS) in addition to spoligotyping and mycobacterial interspersed repeat unit (MIRU) typing. Comparison of M. tuberculosis genomes indicated that 95% of TB recurrences in the HIV-negative cohort were due to relapse, while the majority of TB recurrences (75%) in the HIV-positive cohort was due to re-infection (P=0.0001). Drug resistance conferring mutations were documented in four pairs (9%) of isolates associated with relapse. The high contribution of re-infection to TB among HIV patients warrants further study to explore risk factors for TB exposure in the community.

scholarly journals False COVID-19 cases due to contamination by inactivated virus vaccine

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kelvin Kai-Wang To ◽  
Xin Li ◽  
David Christopher Lung ◽  
Jonathan Daniel Ip ◽  
Wan-Mui Chan ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Whole Genome Sequencing ◽  
Genome Sequencing ◽  
Virus Vaccine ◽  
False Positive ◽  
Spike Protein ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
Rt Pcr ◽  
Health Measures ◽  
Respiratory Specimens

Abstract A false-positive SARS-CoV-2 RT-PCR result can lead to unnecessary public-health measures. We report two individuals whose respiratory specimens were contaminated by inactivated SARS-CoV-2 vaccine strain(CoronaVac), likely at vaccination premises. Incidentally, whole-genome sequencing of CoronaVac showed adaptive deletions on the spike protein, which do not result in observable changes of antigenicity.

scholarly journals Evaluation of Whole-Genome Sequencing for Identification and Typing of Vibrio cholerae

2018 ◽  
Vol 56 (11) ◽  
Author(s):  
David R. Greig ◽  
Ulf Schaefer ◽  
Sophie Octavia ◽  
Ebony Hunter ◽  
Marie A. Chattaway ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Public Health ◽  
Whole Genome Sequencing ◽  
Vibrio Cholerae ◽  
Species Identification ◽  
Genome Sequencing ◽  
National Level ◽  
Whole Genome ◽  
Content Type ◽  
El Tor ◽  
The Impact

ABSTRACT Epidemiological and microbiological data on Vibrio cholerae strains isolated between April 2004 and March 2018 (n = 836) and held at the Public Health England culture archive were reviewed. The traditional biochemical species identification and serological typing results were compared with the genome-derived species identification and serotype for a subset of isolates (n = 152). Of the 836 isolates, 750 (89.7%) were from a fecal specimen, 206 (24.6%) belonged to serogroup O1, and 7 (0.8%) were serogroup O139; 792 (94.7%) isolates were from patients reporting recent travel abroad, most commonly to India (n = 209) and Pakistan (n = 104). Of the 152 V. cholerae isolates identified by use of kmer, 149 (98.1%) were concordant with those identified using the traditional biochemical approach. Traditional serotyping results were 100% concordant with those of the whole-genome sequencing (WGS) analysis for the identification of serogroups O1 and O139 and classical and El Tor biotypes. ctxA was detected in all isolates of V. cholerae O1 El Tor and O139 belonging to sequence type 69 (ST69) and in V. cholerae O1 classical variants belonging to ST73. A phylogeny of isolates belonging to ST69 from U.K. travelers clustered geographically, with isolates from India and Pakistan located on separate branches. Moving forward, WGS data from U.K. travelers will contribute to global surveillance programs and the monitoring of emerging threats to public health and the global dissemination of pathogenic lineages. At the national level, these WGS data will inform the timely reinforcement of direct public health messaging to travelers and mitigate the impact of imported infections and the associated risks to public health.

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