Publicly available whole-genome sequencing data supports TB surveillance

The large amount of publicly available whole-genome sequencing (WGS) data for TB gives us the chance to re-use data and thus improve the surveillance of tuberculosis (TB). We extracted raw WGS data and the related metadata of Mycobacterium tuberculosis isolates available from the public archives and compared this public dataset with WGS data with own data of MDR- and XDR-TB isolates from Germany. We detected mixed clusters from both datasets and could, therefore, connect TB cases despite missing epidemiological information. We demonstrated the added value of using WGS raw data from public repositories to contribute to TB surveillance. By comparing the German and the public dataset, we identified potential international transmission events.