Molecular studies on Pasteurella species isolated from ducks

Duck cholera is a fatal, contagious and septicemic disease of ducks caused by Pasteurella species. A total of 150 ducks were collected from ten farms in Kaliobia Governorate suspected to be suffering from Pasteurellosis that manifested by respiratory signs, sudden death, and nervous manifestation. Collected Samples from these ducks were liver, spleen, heart and lung which subjected for bacteriological examination. A total of 33 Pasteurella strains were isolated, 25 strain were Pasteurella multocida (recovered from liver samples) and 8 strain were Pasteurella pneumotropica (5 strains recovered from lung and 3 strain recovered from heart). Finding of antibiotic sensitivity test showed that Pastreulla isolates were sensitive to florofinicole (80%) and moderately sensitive to ciprofloxacine (60%), enrofloxacin (50%) and followed by tobramycin (40%). Amoxicillin, oxytetracycline and penicillin were less sensitive (30% each) while isolates showed absolute resistance to erythromycin (100%) followed by resistance to gentamycin (90%) and naldixic acid (80%) for both types of Pasteurella. PCR results showed that Cytotoxic protein (toxA) toxcin virulence gene was detected in 4 out of 10 studied strains and fimbrial protein (ptfA) virulence gene was detected in 4 out of 10 studied strains. Sequences of toxA and ptfA genes were submitted to Gen Bank and assigned accession numbers were MF167359 and MF382009, respectively