Pathological and molecular diagnosis of Brucella melitensis in the fetal and placental tissues of aborted ewes in Al-Najaf city

Brucellosis is one of the common bacterial zoonosis in the worldwide caused by organisms belong to the genus Brucella, However, animal Brucellosis is a serious problem worldwide and is endemic globally and disease of sexually matured animals and commonly transmitted to other animals by direct or indirect contact with infected animals or discharges such as: aborted fetuses, placental membranes or fluids. Fifty samples from internal organ of aborted fetus and the same number of aborted placenta were collected from aborted ewes positive to Rose Bengal test. For isolation and identification of Brucella from placenta and stomach contents , the standard procedures (Alton et al., 1988) were followed. The isolates were further confirmed by molecular techniques. The results showed that Br.melitensis was isolated from all animals that expressed Rose Bengal and serum agglutination test positive .The agglutination with monospecific A and M antisera were performed and these test revealed that the bacterial isolates expressed three Biovar as following ,Biovar 1(M,50%),Biovar 2 (A,26%) and Biovar 3 (0,24%). The number of this Biovar were varied according to collect area of the samples, high percentage (44%) was seen in the ALmanitherh ,,followed by AL Shabeka (30%) and AL Kuzweenah (26%) The results of PCR assay explained that 22 bacterial isolates showed a single amplified DNA product (44%) ,two bands at the level of 273 and 680 bp were seen in 8 isolates (16% ) and four bands at 273,680,750 and 850 bp were reported in 20 isolates(40%).