The product of the Bordetella bronchiseptica pertactin gene, prn, has been implicated as an adhesin and a protective immunogen in swine. Recent studies demonstrate prn sequence heterogeneity in swine isolates and vaccine strains within and surrounding the region 1 amino acid repeat GGXXP(n) and the region 2 amino acid repeat PQP(n). However, only a few isolates have been evaluated. Allelic variation between vaccine strains and field isolates may affect vaccine efficacy, since region 2 is known to encode an immunodominant protective epitope. In the present study, the DNA and predicted amino acid sequences of the pertactin repeat regions from a collection of 81 recent swine field isolates and 5 vaccine strains from the United States were determined. Two region 1 variants and four region 2 variants, one of which has not been previously reported, were identified, comprising four pertactin types. Four vaccines are derived from strains with a region 1 variant identical to that found in the majority of field isolates. However, only two vaccines possess the most commonly identified sequence in region 2, while two others contain a variant found in only one other swine isolate. Ribotype analysis demonstrated that although vaccines containing the novel region 2 variant fall within the same major cluster as other common swine ribotypes, they are less closely related. No relationship was observed between pertactin type and ribotype.