Rapid laboratory detection of meningococcal disease outbreaks caused by serogroup C Neisseria meningitidis

Molecular subtyping is of significant importance to the recognition of outbreaks of meningococcal disease caused by serogroup C Neisseria meningitidis. We describe the application of multilocus variable number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA) for the molecular subtyping of N. meningitidis and compare its performance to that of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). For MLVA, a multiplex PCR assay targeting five variable number tandem repeat regions was developed and evaluated using a panel of sporadic and outbreak-associated serogroup C N. meningitidis isolates. MLVA was highly reproducible and provided results within 6 h. Overall, the discriminatory power of MLVA was equivalent to that of PFGE. The utilization of MLVA for subtyping N. meningitidis isolates provides a rapid and safer alternative to PFGE for identifying outbreaks of meningococcal disease. As such, it may provide public health officials with timely information that may minimize the spread of outbreak-related cases through prophylaxis.