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Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) is a common serovar associated with non-typhoidal salmonellosis globally. However, there is insufficient data on molecular characterization of S. Typhimurium isolates from India. This study was undertaken to determine the antimicrobial resistance (AMR), plasmid, virulence profiles and molecular subtypes of S. Typhimurium Indian isolates (n = 70) of clinical and environmental origin isolated during 2010–2017. Antimicrobial susceptibility and minimum inhibitory concentrations were determined by disc diffusion and E-test methods respectively. Plasmid extraction was done following standard protocol. AMR genes, virulence genes and plasmid incompatibility types were detected by PCR; Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) were used for molecular subtyping. Majority (57%) of the study isolates was pan susceptible; five AMR profiles were observed among the resistant (43%) isolates. AMR was significantly (p = 0.004) associated with extra-intestinal isolates than intestinal isolates.The class 1 integron and plasmid-mediated quinolone resistance genes (qnrB1, qnrS1) in the resistant isolates were transferable by conjugation. Plasmids (≥1) ranging from 1.9 to 254kb size and of IncFIIS and/or FIB type were found in most isolates. A total of 39 pulsotypes by PFGE and four sequence types by MLST like ST36 (55.7%), ST19 (32.9%), ST313 (10%) and ST213 (1.4%) were observed. ST36 and ST19 were found circulating in both clinical and environmental host, while ST313 isolates had an exclusive clinical origin. All ST19 isolates (100%) were drug-resistant, while isolates belonging to ST313 (100%), ST213 (100%) and ST36 (82%) were pan susceptible. The virulence plasmid (VP) genes (spvB- spvC) were present in all genotypes except ST36. The VP was significantly (p<0.001) associated with extra-intestinal than intestinal isolates. Some environmental and clinical isolates were clonal indicating their zoonotic transmission. Knowledge on the molecular subtypes and AMR profiles of locally prevalent Salmonella serotypes is important for effective control of spread of resistant organisms. The MLST of S. Typhimurium isolates and its association with AMR, virulence profiles was not reported earlier from India. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 2015, the swine derived A(H1N1)pdm09 pandemic strain outbreak became widespread throughout the different states of India. The reported cases and deaths in 2015 surpassed the previous years with more than 39000 laboratory confirmed cases and a death toll of more than 2500 people. There are relatively limited complete genetic sequences available for this virus from Asian countries. In this study, we describe the full genome analysis of influenza 2015 A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses isolated from West Bengal between January through December 2015. The phylogenetic analysis of the haemagglutinin sequence revealed clustering with globally circulating strains of genogroup 6B. This was further confirmed by the constructed concatenated tree using all eight complete gene segments of Kolkata A(H1N1)pdm09 isolates with the other strains from different timeline and lineages. A study from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 2015 reported novel mutations T200A and D225N in haemagglutinin gene of a 2014 Indian strain (A/India/6427/2014). However, in all the pandemic strains of 2014–2015 reported from India, so far including A(H1N1)pdm09 strains from Kolkata, D225N mutation was not observed, though the T200A mutation was found to be conserved. Neuraminidase gene of the analyzed strains did not show any oseltamivir resistant mutation H275Y suggesting continuation of Tamiflu® as drug of choice. The amino acid sequences of the all gene segments from 2015 A(H1N1)pdm09 isolates identified several new mutations compared to the 2009 A(H1N1)pdm09 strains, which may have contributed towards enhanced virulence, compared to 2009 A(H1N1)pdm09 strains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]