Capsular typing and virulence gene profiling of Pasteurella multocida isolated from chickens

Abstract

A study was conducted to identify the prevalent capsular types of Pasteurella multocida in chicken from different parts of Assam, India. Screening of 153 samples, comprising of tracheal swab (71), lungs (52), liver (20) and heart blood (10) revealed 14 samples to be positive for P. multocida, yielding an equal no. of isolates. All the isolates were confirmed to be P. multocida by pm-PCR. Among the isolates, 12 were identified as capsular type A (85.71%), while the remaining 2 (14.28%) isolates as type D. Isolates were found to possess virulence associated genes in different combinations, irrespective of their capsular types. All the 14 isolates were found to possess ompH gene, while 10 could reveal presence of ompA87 (71.42%) gene. Presence of fim A was observed in 9 (64.28%) isolates, while ptfA and nanB could be detected in 6(42.85%) isolates. pfhA and tbp gene could be detected in 5 (35.0%) of the isolates, while 3 (21.0%) isolates revealed presence of hgb gene. Distribution of virulence associated gene was found to be equal in the P. multocida isolates of both apparently healthy and diseased chickens.