. The combined D value of 7th pandemic isolates for
all 6 VNTRs in this study was 0.995. We also calculated D
values from previous studies by excluding MLVA data of
environmental and non-7th pandemic isolates [19-22] and
found that the D values were similar and ranged from
0.962 to 0.990 [19-22], when only 7th pandemic isolates
were analysed. Analysis using the two most variable
VNTRs, vca0171 and vca0283, produced comparable D
values, which could potentially reduce the need to use the
other markers. This would be particularly useful in outbreak
situations where there is limited time and resources
available to type isolates. However, typing the isolates in
this study using only