Aim: Genotyping of Hib strains isolated in regions of Russia as well as characterization of genetic relations of typed strains with strains isolated in other areas.
Materials and methods: Genetic characterization of 31 strains of Hib isolated in Russian regions during 2005-2008 was performed by multilocus sequence typing.
Results: Studied strains belonged to 11 variants of sequence types, 6 of which were described in previous studies, whereas other 5 were isolated for the first time during this study. The most common isolated strains were ST-92 (13 strains or 42%) and ST-6 (6 strains or 19%). Typed strains were distributed to two clonal complexes. Clonal complex "A1/A2" ("ST-6") incorporates all typed strains except ST-93 strain belonging to clonal complex "B1b" ("ST-93"). The majority of studied strains (19 or 61%) had difference from "central" sequence type of clonal complex, A1/A2 ("ST-6") on not more than one allele.
Conclusion: Clonal structure of isolated strains is analogous to the one observed in Moscow and foreign strains.