POTENTIAL OF PASTEURELLA MULTOCIDA ISOLATED FROM HEALTHY AND DISEASED CATTLE AND BUFFALOES IN INDUCTION OF DISEASES

Abstract

Twenty-six isolates of Pasteureila multocida were recovered from cattle and buffaloes in Iran. The identification of the isolates was carried out using morphological and biochemical tests. Among eight different biochemical biovars, 17 (65.38%) of them were assigned to biovar 3 and the rest belonged to biovars 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, and 15. Capsular typing of isolates by PCR demonstrated three capsular types (A, 13, and D), among which type B was the most common (46.15%) and was found in 10 (38.46%) cattle and in two (7.69%) buffalo samples. A notably high prevalence of Pasteurella filamentous haemagglutinin A (PfhA) and transferrin binding protein encoding (tbpA) genes among three virulence genes detected by multiplex PCR were found. The high prevalence of these genes owning association of disease status among healthy animals showed high potential of the strains in induction of disease among cattle and buffalo herds. The results of this study imply that the role of environmental and host factors are more important than bacterial virulence factors (pfhA and tbpA) in disease induction.