Diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis Isolates in an Immigrant Population: Evidence against a Founder Effect

Population-based studies have used DNA typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis organisms to estimate the extent of ongoing tuberculosis transmission in various communities and to characterize associated risk factors. The finding of matched DNA “fingerprints” among isolates from an immigrant subgroup may reflect transmission in the adopted country but could also reflect limited diversity among M. tuberculosis organisms within that immigrant community. The authors sought to determine which hypothesis is more likely to explain the high frequency of matched isolates among Haitian-born tuberculosis patients in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. The authors determined the number of different bacterial genotypes in this community as compared with other foreign-born tuberculosis patients and applied a recently described measure of genetic similarity between M. tuberculosis organisms (“genetic distance”). Among 76 Haitian-born tuberculosis patients diagnosed during 1996–1998, the authors identified 47 distinct genotypes on the basis of standard IS6110 DNA typing and categorical analysis. In genetic distance analysis, these 47 genotypes showed as great a genetic diversity as that observed among the 191 distinct genotypes identified in 216 other foreign-born tuberculosis patients. A mycobacterial “founder effect” is unlikely to account for the high proportion of shared isolates among Haitian-born Montrealers. Recent transmission remains the most likely explanation.