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Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae causes enzootic pneumonia (EP) in swine, a disease related to high economic losses in production systems. Epidemiological spread of M. hyopneumoniae clones was studied by multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) in several swine production regions but so far not in South America. Using MLST, we have therefore investigated M. hyopneumoniae clones circulating in farms from three main swine production regions in Brazil. Porcine lungs samples were collected between 2015 and 2016 in farms with EP outbreaks. Three geographically distant regions were selected, and 67 M. hyopneumoniae positive samples, each one from a different farm, were included in the study. The occurrence of five sequence types (ST) was demonstrated and the majority of the samples were identified as ST-69 (n = 60; 89.5%), followed by ST-70 (n = 3; 4.5%), ST-123 (n = 2; 3%), ST-124 (n = 1; 1.5%) and ST-127 (n = 1; 1.5%). There was no association of any specific ST with region or production system. The five STs were all new ones, probably representing unique Brazilian clones. ST-69 and ST-70 on one side and ST-123 and ST-124 on the other side are phylogenetically close, while ST-127 is singleton. In conclusion, our results showed a low variability and high clonality of M. hyopneumoniae genotypes from Brazilian farms affected by EP., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The global shipping network is widely recognised as a pathway for vectoring invasive species. One species of particular concern is Lymantria dispar (gypsy moth). Two subspecies, L. d. asiatica and L. d. japonica (herein referred to as Asian Gypsy Moth - AGM) are of considerable concern as ships arriving to a number of countries have been found carrying AGM egg masses. However, ships carrying AGM eggs can only threaten a country at ports located in a climatically suitable region. We present a CLIMEX model of climate suitability and combine this with international shipping to estimate the global threat from AGM. We find that for the USA more than half of international ships (approximately 18,000 ships) arrive to climatically suitable ports. Other countries with a large number of ships arriving to ports with suitable climates include Canada and Brazil. This is the first global analysis of the invasion threat from AGM, and we recommend countries focus AGM-inspection programs towards ships arriving at ports found within climatically suitable regions.