About the Authors

Mark Achtman

Contributed equally to this work with: Mark Achtman, John Wain, François-Xavier Weill, Satheesh Nair

m.achtman@ucc.ie

Affiliations Environmental Research Institute and Department of Microbiology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland, Max-Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany

John Wain

Contributed equally to this work with: Mark Achtman, John Wain, François-Xavier Weill, Satheesh Nair

Affiliations The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, United Kingdom, Health Protection Agency, Centre for Infection, London, United Kingdom

François-Xavier Weill

Contributed equally to this work with: Mark Achtman, John Wain, François-Xavier Weill, Satheesh Nair

Affiliation Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

Satheesh Nair

Contributed equally to this work with: Mark Achtman, John Wain, François-Xavier Weill, Satheesh Nair

Affiliations The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, United Kingdom, Health Protection Agency, Centre for Infection, London, United Kingdom

Zhemin Zhou

Affiliation Environmental Research Institute and Department of Microbiology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

Vartul Sangal

Affiliation Max-Planck Institute for Infection Biology, Berlin, Germany

Mary G. Krauland

Affiliation Infectious Diseases Epidemiology Research Unit, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

James L. Hale

Affiliation Environmental Research Institute and Department of Microbiology, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland

Heather Harbottle

Affiliation Center for Veterinary Medicine, U. S. Food and Drug Administration, Derwood, Maryland, United States of America

Alexandra Uesbeck

Affiliation Institute of Medical Microbiology, Immunology, and Hygiene, University of Cologne, Cologne, Germany

Gordon Dougan

Affiliation The Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute, Wellcome Trust Genome Campus, Cambridge, United Kingdom

Lee H. Harrison

Affiliation Infectious Diseases Epidemiology Research Unit, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and Graduate School of Public Health, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States of America

Sylvain Brisse

Affiliation Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

the S. enterica MLST study group

For a list of members please see the Acknowledgments.

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: MA JW F-XW ZZ HH AU LHH SB GD. Performed the experiments: F-XW ZZ SN VS MGK JLH HH AU . Analyzed the data: MA JW F-XW ZZ SN SB. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: FX-W ZZ GD. Wrote the paper: MA JW F-XW VS SB GD. Exchange of bacterial strains: MA JW F-Xw AE GD LHH SB.