First Identification of Taylorella equigenitalis From Genital Tracts of Thoroughbred Horses From the Inland Area of South Korea by Multilocus Sequence Typing

The bacterium, Taylorella equigenitalis, is responsible for the disease contagious equine metritis (CEM), a highly contagious venereal disease of horses. There have been substantial economic losses reported in various equine industries across the world as a result of CEM. So far, there had been no reported cases of T. equigenitalis in the inland area of South Korea. This study was performed to determine the prevalence and the genotype of T. equigenitalis in the inland area of South Korea. In this study, 1 of 38 Thoroughbred horses was found positive for T. equigenitalis using bacterial culture. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and construction of a neighbor-joining tree based on the Taylorella spp. MLST database (http://pubmlst.org/taylorella) indicated that the inland South Korean T. equigenitalis strain in this study showed a distinct genotype and no epidemiologic relationship with other regional strains suggesting that the inland South Korean T. equigenitalis strain is unique. In order to prevent serious repercussions to the South Korean equine industry, a full epidemiologic investigation and comprehensive treatment regimen are needed.