Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus, a Lancefield group C streptococcus, is a frequently isolated opportunist pathogen from a variety of animal hosts, including the horse. Previous studies have indicated that equine strains carry antigens with characteristics of the antiphagocytic M proteins on the Lancefield groups A and G streptococci. We have cloned a protective M-like protein gene (SzPW...

Two novel streptococcal superantigen genes (speL(Se) and speM(Se)) were identified from the Streptococcus equi genome database at the Sanger Center. Genotyping of 8 S. equi isolates and 40 Streptococcus pyogenes isolates resulted in the detection of the orthologous genes speL and speM in a restricted number of S. pyogenes isolates (15 and 5%, respectively). Surprisingly, the novel superantigen ...

Streptococcus equi ssp. zooepidemicus (S. equi spp. zooepidemicus) is an opportunistic pathogen that causes major economic losses in the swine industry in China and is also a threat for human health. Biofilm formation by this bacterium has been previously reported. In this study, we used an immunoproteomic approach to search for immunogenic proteins expressed by biofilm-grown S. equi spp. zooep...

The obligate parasitic bacterium Streptococcus equi subsp. equi is the causative agent of strangles, a serious disease of the upper respiratory tract in horses. In this study we have, using shotgun phage display, cloned from S. equi subsp. equi and characterized a gene, called sfs, encoding a protein termed SFS, representing a new type of fibronectin (Fn)-binding protein. The sfs gene was found...

Streptococcus suis and Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus are capable of infecting humans and various animals, causing significant problems for the worldwide swine industry. As antibiotic resistance has increased, lysosomal enzymes encoded by phages have shown potential for use against pathogenic bacteria. In this study, a novel bacteriophage lysin, Ply30, encoded by the S. suis prophage p...