RESUMO
Bordetella avium is an opportunistic pathogen that presents tropism for ciliated epithelia, leading to upper respiratory tract disease in turkeys. This agent has also been associated with Lockjaw Syndrome in psittacine birds, but literatures describing the importance of this agent in such species are rare. The purpose of the present study was to report the first outbreak of B. avium infection in juvenile cockatiels demonstrating the Lockjaw Syndrome in Brazil and to investigate the antimicrobial resistance profile and phenotypic and genotypic characteristics of these strains. Surprising, the strains obtained from five infected cockatiel chicks from three different breeders from different Brazilian states showed a clonal relationship using the Pulsed Field Gel Electrophoresis and Single Enzyme Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism techniques. The virulence potentials of the B. avium strains were assessed using tracheal adherence and cytotoxic effects on a VERO cell monolayer.
Assuntos
Doenças das Aves/microbiologia , Infecções por Bordetella/veterinária , Bordetella avium/genética , Bordetella avium/patogenicidade , Cacatuas/microbiologia , Análise do Polimorfismo de Comprimento de Fragmentos Amplificados , Animais , Antibacterianos/farmacologia , Infecções por Bordetella/microbiologia , Bordetella avium/efeitos dos fármacos , Brasil , Chlorocebus aethiops , Farmacorresistência Bacteriana , Eletroforese em Gel de Campo Pulsado , Genótipo , Turquia , Células VeroRESUMO
Bordetella avium continues to be an economic issue in the turkey industry as the causative agent of bordetellosis, which often leads to serious secondary infections. This study presents a broad characterization of the antibiotic resistance patterns in this diverse collection of B. avium strains collected over the past thirty years. In addition, the plasmid basis for the antibiotic resistance was characterized. The antibiotic resistance pattern allowed the development of a novel enrichment culture method that was subsequently employed to gather new isolates from diseased turkeys and a healthy sawhet owl. While a healthy turkey flock was shown to seroconvert by four weeks-of-age, attempts to culture B. avium from healthy turkey poults were unsuccessful. Western blot of B. avium strains using pooled serum from diseased and healthy commercial turkey flocks revealed both antigenic similarities and differences between strains. In sum, the work documents the continued exposure of commercial turkey flocks to B. avium and the need for development of an effective, inexpensive vaccine to control spread of the disease.
