Poster Presentation The 2nd Prato Conference on the Pathogenesis of Bacterial Diseases of Animals 2012

Genetic diversity and epizootiology of chlamydiae prevalent among the domestic and feral avian species in Russia. (#65)

Svetlana P. Yatsentyuk 1 , Igor L. Obukhov 1 , Alexander N. Panin 1
  1. FGU VGNKI, Moscow, Russia

To study genetic diversity and occurrence of Chlamydophila psittaci, a total of 763 samples from different species of feral and domestic birds were examined using ompA gene based PCR. Among 74 positive samples (Psittaciformes-67, Columbiformes – 4 and Passeriformes- 3) two types of chlamydiae: C. psittaci and unknown Chlamydophila sp. were identified. A single isolate from crow of unknown Chlamydophila sp. was found phylogenetically intermediate between Chlamydophila species infecting avian and mammalian hosts. The ORF8–ORF1 region of the extrachromosomal plasmid was amplified for 12 parrot and 3 corvid isolates. A plasmid is often present in C. psittaci strains and the lack of an extrachromosomal plasmid is regarded as a characteristic feature of C. abortus strains The corvid isolates proved to lack an extrachromosomal plasmid. The analysis of the rRNA intergenic spacer support the position of one crow isolate in the group of strains intermediate between C. abortus and C. psittaci. Chlamydiosis was detected among 7.2% dead birds as well 16% clinically normal birds. It was observed that the genotype A is the most frequent among parrot chlamydiae.