European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

STUDIES ON RESPIRATORY AFFECTIONS OF SHEEP IN MATROUH GOVERNORATE, EGYPT

Mona A. Mahmoud*

ABSTRACT

The present study aimed to study the clinical description of respiratory disorders in sheep, besides isolation and identification most bacteria incriminated in causing pneumonia of sheep with special focusing on Mycoplasma. It conducted on 410 Barki sheep of different ages and sexes reared in Matrouh Governorate, Egypt in a period extended from January to December 2018. Of these, 320 nasal swabs were collected from sheep suffer from respiratory affections and 90 lung tissues from slaughtered sheep. Sheep were clinical and post-mortem examined before isolation and identification of causative bacteria. Samples were subjected to biochemical tests and serological diagnosis by Enzyme-Linked Immuno-Sorbent Assay (ELISA). Histopathological changes also were recorded. Results revealed that respiratory infection causes severe economic losses to sheep breeders through increasing mortality of infected sheep. Mycoplasma bovis was the main cause of respiratory manifestation in sheep under study area conditions followed by Klebsiellapnumoniae, Pasteurella multocida, Pseudomonas aerogenosa, Staphylococcus epidermedis and streptococcus pnumoniae. Molecularly, PCR assays based on 16SrRNA genes-specific primers identified Mycoplasma and Mycoplasmabovis from nasal swabs and lung tissues of sheep more accurate than other methods. We concluded that the present results can serve as the basis for subsequent studies in infectious diseases in Egypt, particularly respiratory infections. Also, we advise that these bacterial causes could be introduced to genotyping at a more accurate level allowing molecular epidemiological studies and research.

Keywords: Barki sheep, Respiratory infections, Mycoplasma, PCR-16SrRNA, Egypt.