Application of MALDI-TOF MS for the subtyping of Arcobacter butzleri strains and comparison with their MLST and PFGE types

For the first time, this study evaluated the use of MALDI-TOF as a typing tool for Arcobacter butzleri. A total of 104 A. butzleri strains isolated from different sources in an artisanal dairy plant in Italy were identified and typed using MALDI-TOF and compared with their multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) profiles found in previous studies. MALDI-TOF correctly identified all the isolates to species level. No clearly delineated clusters appeared on dendrograms based on either the complete spectra or the significant peaks, but nine clusters were defined using the cophenetic correlation. Interestingly, MALDI-TOF proved able to discriminate A. butzleri strains below species level, confirming its potential use for epidemiological surveys. As expected, the comparative analysis with PFGE and MLST showed that the discriminatory index was lower for MALDI-TOF but roughly comparable to sequence types and pulsotypes. MALDI-TOF appears to be a relatively low cost answer to the urgent need for more rapid, less expensive typing tools suitable for source attribution studies, readily allowing multiple typing methods to be combined. This study provides insights into MALDI-TOF as potential epidemiological tool. Its application in healthcare surveillance systems awaits further exploration to encourage interaction and convergence studies between primary care in humans and animal and food veterinary authorities as part of the One Health concept.