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Legionella pneumophila has frequently been found in cooling towers (CT) with different DNA subtypes being implicated in community-acquired Legionella infections. The aims of this chapter were to investigate the genotypic variability of L. pneumophila in cooling towers and determine the persistence of the DNA subtypes over time in two different areas. In six cooling towers the authors observed a single DNA subtype, in five, two DNA subtypes, in three cooling towers, three DNA subtypes and in two cooling towers the authors observed fewer than four DNA subtypes. In three of the seven cooling towers the authors observed a single DNA subtype, in two the authors found two DNA subtypes, and in another two, three DNA subtypes were reported. When authors studied the persistence of the DNA subtypes it was found that in 19 of 23 cooling towers (82%) the same DNA subtype was recovered after at least 6 months of follow-up. These results demonstrate the great genotypic variability of Legionella in the cooling towers. |
