Evidence for Chlamydia pneumoniae of non-human origin

Abstract

KC from the conjunctiva of a koala. Monoclonal antibodies raised to C. pneumoniae IOL207 and shown to be C. pneumoniae-specific confirmed that N16 was more closely related to C. pneumoniae than to C. psittaci. Thus DNA homology and monoclonal antibody data both suggest that horse chlamydiae, as exemplified by N16, form a new second strain of C. pneumoniae. This species is probably more widespread and diverse than the current literature would suggest.

Emended description of the order Chlamydiales, proposal of Parachlamydiaceae fam. nov. and Simkaniaceae fam. nov., each containing one monotypic genus, revised taxonomy of the family Chlamydiaceae, including a new genus and five new species, and standards for the identification of organisms

“…These groupings agreed with many phenotypic and ecological differences among chlamydial groups, including antigenicity, associated disease, host range and genomic endonuclease restriction (Everett & Andersen, 1997). They were also in agreement with observations by Herring (1993) Lobau et al, 1995;Pettersson et al, 1997;Pudjiatmoko et al, 1997;Storey et al, 1993;Takahashi et al, 1997;Zhang et al, 1993). The 16s rRNA tree failed to show strong genetic divergence between the EBA/B577 abortion cluster and the avian cluster, from which the abortion group is evolving.…”

“…The Equine biovar of Chlamydophila pneumoniae currently includes only strain N16, which was isolated from the respiratory tract of a horse (Wills et al, 1990). The MOMP of N16 is 5.5% different from that in other Chlarnydophilapneumoniae isolates (Storey et al, 1993) and > 30% different from other chlamydial species.…”

“…The emended species, Chlamydophila pneumoniae, has been isolated from humans worldwide (Kuo et al, 1995). In addition, a number of isolates obtained from koalas and a horse have genetic and antigenic characteristics very similar to the human isolates, which warrants including all of these in Chlamydophila pneumoniae (Glassick et al, 1996;Storey et al, 1993). DNA sequence analyses of ompA indicate that the amino acid sequence of MOMP in all Chlamydophilapneumoniae strains varies < 6 YO, while other species are > 30% different from…”

“…The 23s rRNA Domain I of N16 and TWAR differ by 1.3 Yo, and are > 5.6 YO different from other chlamydial species. Two mAbs have been identified that are specific for the TWAR biovar, but that do not recognize N16 (Storey et al, 1993). Ultrastructural analyses of N16 EBs show the classic coccoid morphology of the Chlamydiaceae spp.…”

Seroepidemiology of Chlamydial Infections of Wild Ruminants in Spain

“…All chlamydial species are pathogenic in animals, including C. pneumoniae in koalas (Storz and Kaltenboeck, 1993) and horses (Storey et al, 1993), and C. trachomatis is widespread in swine (Schiller et al, 1997). In ruminant species C. psittaci is an important pathogen.…”