SOME MICROBIOLOGICAL STUDIES ON PASTEURELLA MULTOCIDA IN RABBITS

To establish this goal, a total of 120 samples of blood and nasal swabs (60 samples from apparently healthy rabbits and 60 samples from diseased ones) were collected from different farms scattered at different localities in Sohag governorate. All samples were submitted for bacteriological examination by conventional culture method. Recovery of pasteurella isolates from apparently healthy and diseased rabbits were (16), (37) isolates respectively, with isolation rate of (26.7%), (61.7%) respectively and total isolation rate of (44.2%). Isolation of pasteurella, colonial and cellular morphological pictures were studied and recorded Biochemical reaction proved that only 15(28.3%) of isolates had typical biochemical properties of pasteurella multocida. Serotyping of (15) pasteurella isolates by using ELISA test revealed that only 13(86.7%) out of 15 pasteurella isolates were positive for ELISA test. The capsular serotyping of the selected (13) Pasteurella multocida isolates were found to be belong to capsular serotype (A). The somatic serotyping proved that (8 isolates) were belonged to serotype 3 with a percentage of (53.3%) followed by (4 isolates) were belonged to serotype 12 with a percentage of (26.7%) and (one isolate) was belonged to serotype 1 with a percentage of (6.7%). The recovered isolates were submitted for molecular identification of KMT1 gene by PCR. Only 14 (93.3%) out of (15) isolates were positive to KMT1 gene and confirmed to be Pasteurella multocida. The occurrence of Pasteurella multocida of examined samples of apparently healthy rabbits and diseased ones were (8.3%) and (15%) respectively.