ABSTRACT
In the present study, previously characterized Staphylococcus hyicus isolated in Russia (n=23) and Germany (n=17) were investigated for the prevalence of the exfoliative toxin encoding genes exhA, exhB, exhC and exhD by multiplex PCR resulting in the detection of exhD positive strains among the S. hyicus isolated from pigs with exudative epidermitis in Russia and the detection of exhC and exhD for one and two strains isolated from exudative epidermitis in Germany respectively. The toxin gene negative strains were generally isolated from apparently healthy pigs, from other animals and from specimens where the relation between the isolation of S. hyicus and the clinical symptoms remained unclear. Partial sequencing of the toxin genes of selected exhC and exhD positive strains and comparing the sequencing results with sequences of exhC and exhD reference strains revealed an almost complete identity. The results of the present study were in agreement with the findings of Andresen and Ahrens (J. Appl. Microbiol., 96, 2004, 1265) and Andresen (J. Vet. Rec., 157, 2005, 376) that the presented multiplex PCR could be used to investigate S. hyicus for toxinogenic potential and that there is an association between the presence of toxin genes in S. hyicus strains from exudative epidermitis. However, comparable with the S. hyicus strains isolated in Germany which were investigated previously by Andresen (J. Vet. Rec., 157, 2005, 376), exhD seems to predominate in S. hyicus strains from Russia.
Subject(s)
Epidermitis, Exudative, of Swine/microbiology , Exfoliatins/genetics , Genes, Bacterial , Staphylococcus/genetics , Amino Acid Sequence , Animals , Base Sequence , Epidermitis, Exudative, of Swine/metabolism , Exfoliatins/metabolism , Germany , Molecular Sequence Data , Polymerase Chain Reaction/methods , Polymerase Chain Reaction/veterinary , Russia , Sequence Alignment , Staphylococcus/metabolism , SwineABSTRACT
A species specific PCR test, based on manganese-dependent superoxide dismutase A encoding gene sodA, was developed for the identification of Staphylococcus hyicus, an important bacterial pathogen in pigs. The designed primers allowed a rapid and reliable identification of phenotypically characterized S. hyicus, isolated in Russia, Germany and Denmark. No cross reactivities could be observed investigating staphylococcal reference strains representing 18 different species and subspecies. The use of the described primers might improve a future diagnosis of this bacterial pathogen.
