European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

MOLECULAR DETECTION OF SOME INFECTIOUS CAUSES OF DIARRHEA IN DESERT SHEEP

Mona A. Mahmoud*

ABSTRACT

Diarrhea is a serious problem in sheep, causing great economic losses due to poor growth rates, veterinary costs and may lead to death, so, the present work was planned to investigate the prevalence of some parasitic, bacterial and viral enteropathogens causes diarrhea in sheep between February 2018 to March 2019 in Marriott district -Alexandria Governorate using PCR assay which detected genes (ITS, 18S rRNA, NP, S, 5’UTR, phoA, invA, 16S rRNA, 23S rRNA, 16S rRNA and alpha toxin) of Eimeria, Cryptosporidium, PPR virus, RVF virus, Ovine Corona virus, E. coli, Salmonella, L. monocytogenes, Campylobacter, Y. enterocolitica, C. perfringens respectively. The molecular detection showed that, the most common bacterial enteropathogens caused diarrhea in desert sheep was C. perfringens in percentage of (95.62 %) followed by Y. enterocolitica in percentage of (94.73%), while, E. coli (91.25%), Salmonella (89.37%), Campylobacter (83.12%) and L. monocytogenes (0%). Regarding, the most common parastic enteropathogen was Eimeria in percentage of (58.75%) followed by Cryptosporidium in percentage of (35%), while there was no detection of viral infections, all of the percentage was detected according to the total number of samples (160 rectal samples). In conclusion, PCR has been demonstrated to be a very specific and sensitive method for the detection of parasites and bacterial to save effort, rapid, economic and sensitive tool for accurate detection of the pathogenic organisms. On the other hand, we report high prevalence of bacterial and parasitic pathogens in desert sheep, which are of public health and veterinary importance. This work provides valuable data on the prevalence of parasitic and bacterial enteropathogens in desert sheep and that will be useful to develop control measures for these pathogens in desert area.

Keywords: PCR, diarrhea, Bacteria, Eimeria, Cryptosporidium.