Genetic diversity of different avian strains of Pasteurella multocida recovered during four outbreaks in India

Abstract

Pasteurella multocida causes fowl cholera in avian species and type A is predominantly reported from outbreaks of fowlcholera. Biochemical, serological, and molecular methods are employed for its diagnosis and typing. Utilizing rapid molecular tools likerepetitive extragenic palindromic (REP) PCR and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) PCR, P. multocida isolates fromfour outbreaks (three from Chennai and one from Ahmadabad, India) were characterized and typed to determine their relationships. Atotal of 36 isolates were recovered from the outbreaks, including one isolate from a parakeet, which was also subjected to characterizationby conventional and molecular analysis. All of the isolates were found to be capsular type A based on PCR assay capsular typing. ERICand REP-PCR showed differences in the banding patterns among different outbreak isolates, and also among the geographical regions.Differences were also noticed among different host species, as the banding pattern in the ERIC- and REP-PCR differed; the analysis ofresults also revealed the same. All of the isolates were found to be sensitive to enrofloxacin and cefotaxime among the antibiotics used inthe study. It was found that different strains might have been involved in the different outbreaks reported in the study. The results showthat molecular typing methods like ERIC- and REP-PCR are useful epidemiological tools for classifying the strains.