Phenotypic and Genotypic Drug Susceptibility Assessment of Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette-Guérin Clinical Strains

Maria Carolina Sisco,1,2 Marlei Gomes da Silva,1 Luciana Distasio de Carvalho,3 Carlos Eduardo Dias Campos,3 Paulo Cesar De Souza Caldas,3 Beatriz Lopez,4 Claudia Argüelles,5 Ana Carolina Carvalho,6 Jacobus de Waard,7,8 Philip Suffys,2 Rafael Silva Duarte1 1Laboratório de Micobactérias, Departamento de Microbiologia Médica, Instituto de Microbiologia Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 2Laboratório de Biologia Molecular Aplicada às Micobactérias, Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 3Laboratório de Referência Nacional Para Tuberculose e Micobacterioses, Centro de Referência Professor Hélio Fraga, Escola Nacional de Saúde Pública, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 4Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Infecciosas, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 5Instituto Nacional de Producción de Biológicos – ANLIS Carlos G Malbrán, Buenos Aires, Argentina; 6Faculdade de Farmácia, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Campus Macaé, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; 7Departamento de Tuberculosis, Instituto Autónomo de Biomedicina Dr. Jacinto Convit, Caracas, Venezuela; 8One Health Research Group, Facultad de Ciencias de La Salud, Universidad de Las Américas, Quito, EcuadorCorrespondence: Philip Suffys Email psuffys@gmail.comPurpose: Mycobacterium bovis Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) is the only vaccine licensed against tuberculosis. Despite the protection offered by the vaccine, in some circumstances children and immunocompromised individuals can develop associated infections, known as BCGitis. Drug susceptibility patterns of BCG clinical strains have rarely been described. We aimed to describe the susceptibility pattern of BCG clinical strains isolated in two different countries.Methods: We performed culture-bas