Molecular Detection and Characterization of Pasteurella multocida Infecting Camels in Marsabit and Turkana Counties, Kenya

Abstract

BackgroundInfection with Pasteurella multocida is abundant in Kenya yet there is scarce information on their genetic diversity. Pasteurella multocida is considered to be one of the normal flora in the respiratory tract of camels and other animals but it becomes pathogenic and causes pasteurellosis when the resistance of the camel body is diminished by harmful environmental influences. Close herding, overwork, limited food supply, and wet climatic conditions are stresses that seem to speed the spread of the infection. Conventional PCR, Multiplex PCR and sequencing were applied to enhance identification of Pasteurella multocida at any level of specificity viz; strain, species, and genus. These molecular tools were applied to confirm the presence and genetic diversity of Pasteurella multocida in 102 blood and 30 nasal swab samples collected from Marsabit and Turkana counties in Kenya. Kmt1 gene was used as the marker gene for Pasteurella multocida and hyaD-hyaC, bcbD, dcbF, ecbJ, and fcbD as marker genes for capsular groups. A study done in northern Kenya noted that in Africa pasteurellosis infections causing death in camels (Camelus dromedarius) have been existing since 1890 though the real cause of this disease remains elusive and needs further study. The study was done to detect Pasteurella multocida and characterize its capsular types by application of molecular biology toolsResultsTwenty one Kenyan isolates were confirmed to be Pasteurella multocida and only capsular group E was detected in both counties. Pasteurella multocida sequences were found to be highly conserved, however isolates detected in Kenya were found to be genetically related to other isolates from African and other parts of the world. ConclusionsThe study confirm that the camels were infected by Pasteurella multocida of capsular type E in Marsabit and Turkana Counties of Kenya. DNA sequences were found to be homologous to Pasteurella multocida thereby confirming that the camels were infected by Pasteurella multocida.

Phenotypic and Genotypic Characterization of Pasteurella Species Isolated from Camels in Egypt

“…However, PCR of M. haemolytica failed to detect SSE specific gene. Our findings were nearly agreed with that reported by Kasivalu et al (2021), where a total of 16% of samples showed amplification product with KMT1 primers and disagree with that reported by Tahamtan et al (2016) as KMT1 gene was observed for all isolates of P. multocida.…”