Identification of Causative Agent of Horse Strangles in Northern Siberia

Abstract

Background:Increase in the livestock and productivity of horse herd farming is limited by a number of facts that include infectious and invasive diseases.

Objectives: The aim of the present study was to isolate, study, identify by the morphological, cultural, biochemical, and molecular-genetic properties new isolates of the causative infectious agent of horse strangles for the development of vaccines.

Animals: The study included the pathological material of 2 foals died from strangles, washouts from the nasal cavity discharge of 34 foals with clinical manifestations of strangles and 18 healthy foals.

Methods: The morphological and cultural properties of the isolates of horse strangles Streptococcus were studied by the method of cultivation in selective media. The species of the isolates were identified by the biochemical properties of Streptococcus culture using the strips “API 20 Step” and the test system “API” (bioMerieux) and PCR.

Results: Nucleotide sequence of the gene 16S of rRNA of Streptococcus equi was revealed in 3 of the isolated strains of strangles Streptococcus. These strains can be used for the development of a vaccine. Also, Enterococcus faecales, Streptococcus piogenes, toxigenic and mold fungi Aspergillus and Mucor geni were isolated in foals with clinical manifestations of strangles. The most precise and quick method of identification of strangles Streptococcus is polymerase chain reaction with specific primers.

Conclusion and Clinical Importance: New isolates of Streptococcus equiwere isolated and identified for the development of a vaccine against horse strangles.