Genotyping of Mycoplasma bovis isolates using multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis

► MLVA was effectively used for the first time in differentiating M. bovis isolates. ► Results were compared to those obtained with RAPD and PFGE for the same isolates. ► Wallace coefficients of ≥ 0.5 were only attained at the most relaxed cutoff level. ► Simpson's index of diversity was 0.91 for MLVA, 0.99 for RAPD analysis and PFGE. ► MLVA is a fast, reliable, and cost-effective typing method for M. bovis epidemiology.