Identification of Pasteurella multocida Strains Isolated from Respiratory Tract of Healthy and Diseased Cattle and Determination of Capsular Types by PCR

The aim of this study was to identify Pasteurella (P.) multocida strains isolated from upper and lower respiratory tract of healthy and diseased cattle in Van region and to determine capsule type by PCR. The isolates were identified by standard bacteriological methods and PCR (PM-PCR) using KMT1 gene-specific primer. From the total of 510 examined swab samples, 60 isolates were suspected as P. multocida by standard bacteriological methods and 53 (88.33%) of them were identified as P. multocida by PM-PCR. P. multocida was isolated from 31 (13.2%) of 222 healthy cattle and 19 (32.2%) of 59 diseased cattle. In all isolates, CapA gene-specific amplicons (1044 bp) were detected by PCR using capsular type specific primers. In conclusion, the findings of this study showed that standard bacteriological methods were important for preliminary identification of P. multocida isolates and the isolation rate of P. multocida from diseased cattle was higher than those of healthy cattle. It was also observed that P. multocida capsular type A strains were common in the respiratory tract of the cattle in Van region