Virulence genes profile and typing of ovine Pasteurella multocida

Abstract

To learn more about the virulence of Pasteurella multocida isolated from sheep, phenotype, capsular type and some virulence factors (Pfha1, HgbB, TbPA and ToxA) of ovine Pasteurella multocida is described in this study. Forty seven isolates of Pasteurella multocida were isolated from clinically healthy and diseased sheep. The isolates belonged to biovars 2(4.25%), 3(21.27%), 4(19.14%), 5(2.1%), 6(27.65%), 7(23.4%) and 11 (2.1%). Capsular typing of isolates by PCR demonstrated two capsular types A (39), D (3) including 5 untyped with 83.3%, 6.3% and 10.6% prevalence, respectively. Among 4 virulence genes detected by PCR, we found a remarkable high prevalence of TbPA (69.4%) and ToxA (72.2%) genes in diseased animals. The high prevalence of ToxA and TbPA among diseased sheep may imply to important role of these genes in epidemiological and virulence of P. multocida isolates in sheep. Additionally, The high prevalence of P. multocida type A ToxA(+) in diseased sheep found in this study is noticeable and attribute to important role of P. multocida type A ToxA(+) in respiratory infection among sheep.