Acta Vet. Brno 2023, 92: 69-77
Investigation of selected bacterial agents causing sheep abortion in the Van Province by RT-PCR and histopathological methods
, Cihat Öztürk2, İsmail Hakkı Ekin3, Ziya İlhan4, Fatma İlhan5
1Siirt University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Microbiology, Siirt, Türkiye
2Kırşehir Ahi Evran University, Faculty of Medicine, Department of Microbiology, Türkiye
3Van Yüzüncü Yıl University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Microbiology, Van, Türkiye
4Balıkesir University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Microbiology, Balıkesir, Türkiye
5Balıkesir University, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Department of Pathology, Balıkesir, Türkiye
Received October 22, 2021
Accepted December 13, 2022
Abortion causes significant economic losses in the sheep industry. Determination of the aetiology is important in dealing with abortions. The present study was aimed to identify selected important bacterial pathogens in the abortion cases of sheep. A total of 113 samples (105 aborted sheep foetuses, 4 placentas, and 4 vaginal swab samples) from 85 different sheep flocks were examined by real-time PCR (RT-PCR) regarding Chlamydia (C.) spp., C. abortus, Brucella (B.) spp., B. melitensis, Salmonella (S.) spp., S. Abortusovis, Coxiella (C.) burnetii, Listeria (L.) spp., L. monocytogenes, and Campylobacter spp. All cases that were found to be positive for bacterial agents by RT-PCR, were examined pathologically. Tissue samples of foetuses that were found to be positive for B. melitensis and L. monocytogenes by RT-PCR were also investigated immunohistochemically. A total of 35 (30.9%) samples were found to be positive by RT-PCR, with 15 (42.8%), 9 (25.7%), 5 (14.2%), 4 (11.4%), 1 (2.8%), and 1 (2.8%) of them being identified as C. abortus, B. melitensis, S. Abortusovis, C. burnetii, L. monocytogenes and Campylobacter spp., respectively. The presence of the antigen was confirmed also immunohistochemically in the cases with B. melitensis and L. monocytogenes. As a consequence, C. abortus was found to cause the highest rate of sheep abortion cases, which should be taken into account when implementing control measures in epidemiological investigations.
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Funding
This study is part of the project funded by Scientific Research Projections of Van Yüzüncü Yıl University (TSA-2017-5841). A summary of this study was presented as an oral presentation on ISPEC 7th International Conference on Agriculture, Animal Sciences and Rural Development.
