Epidemiological evaluation by rRNA-DNA hybridization of strains of Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Abortusovis isolated in southern Italy in the years 1981-1989.

Salmonella enterica subsp. enterica serovar Abortusovis is a major agent of abortion of the sheep and is firmly established, although at low prevalence, in Sicily. This paper describes the application rDNA gene restriction pattern fingerprinting to investigate relatedness among 7 serovar Abortusovis strains isolated at the "Istituto Zooprofilattico Sperimentale" of Sicily and 29 isolates identified at the Southern Italy Centre of Enterobacteriaceae between 1981 and 1989. Although Abortusovis serovar has exhibited a remarkable degree of homogeneity, genomic DNA polymorphisms, that have emerged, suggest possible importation of bacterial clones from different geographic areas.