Molecular epidemiology

In certain cases, it would be helpful to use a molecular DNA fingerprinting technique to further identify sub-groups or clusters of strains within a particular serotype, such as O149:F4(K88) or O157:H7. We use pulse-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) to carry out this typing, also called pulsetyping. Pulsetyping is highly discriminatory, and is useful in epidemiological surveillance studies to trace the origin of strains with respect to time and geographical distribution, or in tracing isolates between disease outbreaks, farms, food, environmental sources, and individuals. Pulsetyping may also be useful to examine the relationship between isolates of different sources, for which an O serotype could not be identified. We use the standardized protocol of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), thus our fingerprint patterns for O157:H7 isolates can be compared with those of PulseNet.

Molecular epidemiology
Price	50 $* per strain
Turn-around	2-3 weeks

* Price subject to change (CAN $)