Vet World Vol.10 June-2017 Article-16
Research Article
Veterinary World, 10(6): 667-671
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2017.667-671
Coxiellosis in domestic livestock of Puducherry and Tamil Nadu: Detection of Coxiella burnetii DNA by polymerase chain reaction in slaughtered ruminants
2. Department of Genomics and Proteomics, Central Interdisciplinary Research Facility, Mahatma Gandhi Medical College & Research Institute, Puducherry, India.
3. Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Veterinary Education and Research, Puducherry, India.
Background and Aim: In the course of our Indian Council of Medical Research project on coxiellosis in Puducherry and Tamil Nadu, 5.64% goat, 1.85% sheep, 1.06% buffaloes, and 0.97% cattle were positive for Coxiella burnetii antibodies by enzyme linked immunosorbent assay kit (IDEXX, Liebefeld, Switzerland). In this preliminary study, we have proceeded to look for C. burnetii DNA in those antibody positive specimens employing an imported commercial C. burnetii polymerase chain reaction (PCR) kit.
Materials and Methods: Blood samples were collected during slaughtering. All 15 blood samples of antibody positive ruminants and three antibody negative samples were subjected to conventional Trans-PCR assay with a commercial PCR kit (Genekam Biotechnology AG, Duisburg, Germany). An in-house Trans-PCR was included in the study for comparison.
Results: A total of 15 antibody positive and three antibody-negative serum samples belonging to 11 goat, 4 sheep, 1 cattle, and 2 buffaloes were tested in duplicate for the presence of C. burnetii DNA by the commercial agar gel PCR kit and an in-house Trans-PCR. Only one buffalo serum sample was positive for C. burnetii with a band at 243 bp in in-house Trans-PCR. Discussion: Seropositivity for C. burnetii need not necessarily translate into infectivity status of the animal. Conversely, seronegative ruminants can shed C. burnetii. Rapid disintegration of C. burnetii DNA during the storage period is an important impediment in QF-PCR research. This is the first time the performance of this commercial PCR kit is being validated in India.
Conclusion: Commercial PCR kit, Genekam did not identify any positive sample, probably because it targeted a larger amplicon of 687 bp. Keywords: Coxiella burnetii DNA, coxiellosis, Trans-polymerase chain reaction.
Keywords: Coxiella burnetii DNA, coxiellosis, Trans-polymerase chain reaction.
How to cite this article: Pradeep J, Stephen S, Pooja P, Akshayavardhini A, Sangeetha B, Antony PX (2017) Coxiellosis in domestic livestock of Puducherry and Tamil Nadu: Detection of
Received: 08-08-2016 Accepted: 03-05-2017 Published online: 19-06-2017
Corresponding author: Selvaraj Stephen E-mail: stephens4950@gmail.com
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2017.667-671
Copyright: Pradeep, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.