Study Area
The study was conducted in selected areas of Ethiopia. Samples were collected from Asosa (10°04′N, 34°31′E), Bale-Robe (7°7′N, 40°0′E), Bishoftu (8°45′N, 38°59′E), Mekele (13°29′N, 39°28′E), and Yabelo (4°53′N, 38°5′E). The areas are located in different agroecological zones of highland and lowland areas (550 to 2492 meter above sea level) as shown in (Fig. 1).
Sample size and sample collection
A cross sectional survey with purposive sampling method was employed to collect samples. Nasopharyngeal swabs and pneumonic lung tissue samples were collected from veterinary clinics and abattoir, respectively. A total of 400 samples (n = 170) from calves and (n = 230) from adult cattle were collected during the study period from April 2018 to January 2019.
Nasopharyngeal swab sample
Clinical cases of respiratory infection were inspected, and nasopharyngeal swab samples were collected from clinically sick calves and adult cattle using sterile laryngeal swab. Briefly, swab was directed via the ventral nasal meatus into nasopharynx, rotated vigorously for 30 sec at the contralateral side. The swab was retracted and inserted into sterile screw capped test tube containing transport medium of modified Cary-Blair Medium (Park Scientific, UK).
Pneumonic lung sample
Abattoir survey was carried out on cattle slaughtered and lung with pneumonic cases were inspected for irregularity in shape, cranioventral reddening, marbling, non-friable foci, or fibrinous pleuritis [26]. Approximately a 3x3 mm piece of lung tissue was taken aseptically from the edge of the lesion and placed in sterile universal bottle. All samples were maintained in cold chain and transported to the Research and Development laboratory of the National Veterinary Institute (NVI) of Ethiopia.
Isolation and phenotypic characterization
P. multocida strains were isolated employing standard bacteriological assay. Briefly, pneumonic lung tissue samples were minced and suspended in 4 ml sterile physiological saline (pH 7.0 ± 0.2) and centrifuged at 3260 x g for 3 min and supernatant was discarded. The sediment was reconstituted with 100 µl sterile physiological saline. Ten µl of the suspension and nasopharyngeal swabs were streaked comparably onto blood agar base (HiMedia, India) with 5% sheep blood and MacConkey agar (HiMedia, India). Plates were incubated at 37oC for 24 – 48 hrs aerobically and phenotypic characterization was carried out on Pasteurella presumptive colonies.
Antimicrobial susceptibility test
All P. multocida isolates were tested for antimicrobial susceptibility against twelve types of antibiotics using the disc diffusion method (Quinn et al., 2002). Chloramphenicol (C 30 µg), Amoxicillin (AMC 30 µg), Amikacin (AK 30 µg), Oxytetracycline (OT 30 µg), Streptomycin (S 25 µg), Tetracycline (TE 30 µg), Clindamycin (DA 10 mcg), Polymyxin-B (PB 300 units), Erythromycin (E 15 µg), Ampicillin (AMP, 10 µg), Penicillin-G (P 10 units), and Cloxacillin (CX 5 µg) disks (HiMedia, India) were evaluated. Clinical and laboratory standard institute breakpoint [27] was used for interpretation of the results.
Molecular Characterization
Bacterial culture preparation
Presumptive isolates of P. multocida were streaked on brain heart infusion (BHI) agar (Oxoid, UK) enriched with 10% horse serum. Plates were incubated at 37ºC for 24 - 48 hrs aerobically. Loopful colonies of each of the pure isolates were transferred into a sterile 1.5 ml Eppendorf tubes and washed twice in nuclease free water. Cell suspension was centrifuged at 16,100 x g for 3 min and 1 ml of cell suspension was heated at 100ºC for 10 min to optimize whole-cell DNA templates for PCR assay.
DNA extraction
Genomic DNA was extracted using DNeasy® Blood and Tissue kit (QIAGEN GmbH, Germany) following the manufacturer’s instructions. Briefly, 200µl sample template was transferred into 1.5 ml microfuge tubes. 20 µl proteinase K and 200 µl buffer AL (lysis buffer) was added, mixed and incubated at 56oC for 10 min. 200 µl 96% ethanol was added, transferred into DNeasy mini spin column with 2 ml collection tube, and centrifuged at 6,000 x g for 1 min. Then, 500 µl buffer AW1 (washing buffer) was added and centrifuged at 6,000 x g for 1 min. Again 500 µl buffer AW2 (washing buffer) was added and centrifuged at 20,000 x g for 3 min. Finally, samples were transferred into 1.5 ml Eppendorf tubes and 50 µl buffer AE (elusion buffer) was added, centrifuged at 6,000 x g for 1 min, and the eluted DNA yield was stored at -20ºC until PCR assay.
PCR detection of P. multocida
PCR assay for P. multocida was carried out using species-specific primers. All amplification and sequencing primers were synthesized by Eurofins Genomics, Austria. Primer for the identification of P. multocida species was based on previous report by Townsend et al. [18] and Jakeen et al. [28] as described in Table 1. PCR reaction mix (20 µl) consisted of 2 µl 5 pmol of each primer, 10 µl IQ super mix (Bio-Rad), 3 µl RNase free water and 3 µl DNA template. Amplification was carried out using thermal cycler (PCRmax™ Alpha Cycler 2, AC296, UK). Briefly, initial denaturation at 95oC for 5 min, followed by 35 cycles of denaturation at 95oC for 1 min, annealing at 55oC for 1 min, extension at 72oC for 1:30 min, and final extension at 72oC for 7 min.
PCR for capsular typing
The capsular antigens of P. multocida was assayed in multiplex PCR using serogroup specific primers targeting serogroups A, B, D, and E as described previously [19]. PCR reaction mix was prepared in 40 µl final volume of 6 µl 5 pmol of each primer, 20 µl of IQ super mix, 2 µl RNase free water, and 6 µl template DNA. Amplification was carried out at initial denaturation at 95oC for 5 min, followed by 35 cycles of denaturation at 95oC for 1 min, annealing at 55oC for 1 min, extension at 72oC for 30 sec, and final extension at 72oC for 7 min.
Table 1. Oligonucleotide sequences used in P. multocida PCR assay.
Sero-groups
|
Gene
|
Primers
|
Sequence (5’ to 3’)
|
Amplicon size (bp)
|
Reference
|
All
|
KMT1
|
KMT1T7- F
|
ATCCGCTATTTACCCAGTGG
|
460
|
[18, 28]
|
KMT1SP6- R
|
GCTGTAAACGAACTCGCCAC
|
A
|
hyaD-hyaC
|
capA-F
|
TGCCAAAATCGCAGTCAG
|
1044
|
[19]
|
capA-R
|
TTGCCATCATTGTCAGTG
|
B
|
bcbD
|
capB-F
|
CATTTATCCAAGCTCCACC
|
760
|
[19]
|
capB-R
|
GCCCGAGAGTTTCAATCC
|
D
|
dcbF
|
capD-F
|
TTACAAAAGAAAGACTAGGAGCCC
|
657
|
[19]
|
capD-R
|
CATCTACCCACTCAACCATATCAG
|
E
|
ecbJ
|
capE-F
|
TCCGCAGAAAATTATTGACTC
|
511
|
[19]
|
capE-R
|
GCTTGCTGCTTGATTTTGTC
|
Agarose gel electrophoresis of PCR products
Amplification of PCR product was carried out in 2% (w/v) agarose gels prepared in 1x Tris borate EDTA (TBE) electrophoresis buffer. Ten µl of each PCR product was mixed with 6x gel loading dye and loaded into separate wells of gel. Ten µl of DNA ladder (100 bp or 1 kb plus, Fermentas) was added into the last lane. Gel electrophoresis was conducted at 120V for 60 min and PCR products were visualized under gel documentation system (UVI TEC, UK) stained with GelRed (Biotium, Inc).
Subspecies and biovar identification
Confirmed P. multocida isolates were assigned into subspecies based on sorbitol and dulcitol fermentation [29, 30]. Isolates were further classified into their respective biovars based on carbohydrate/sugar fermentation profiles including Glucose, lactose, sorbitol, mannitol, trehalose, maltose, xylose, and arabinose) and ornithin decarboxylase (ODC) [31, 30].
Nucleotide sequencing
PCR amplified P. multocida specific DNA band was purified using Wizard® SV Gel and PCR product purification kit (Promega, Germany) following the manufacturer’s instructions. Concentration of the purified PCR product was quantified using Nanodrop 2000c spectrometer (Thermo Scientific, USA). The concentration was adjusted according to the instruction recommended by the sequencing company (LGC Genomics, Germany). The resulting sequences were edited, and contig was formed using Vector NTI 11.5 software (Invitrogen). Consensus sequences were generated and aligned using BioEdit 7.1.3.0. Degree of sequence similarity search was conducted using BLAST program (NCBI).
Ethical statement
Requirement compliance for animal ethics approval from University and Institution was not required for this study. Due to this reason, samples were collected from animals without experimental intervention and lung samples from abattoir slaughtered animals. Consent was first obtained from the animal owners before sampling.
Data Analysis
Data were analyzed using Graph Pad Prism version 8.4.1 and statistical analysis was considered at P< 0.05. Molecular evolutionary genetic analysis (MEGA) version 7 was used for sequence analysis and ClustalW multiple for sequence alignments [32]. Phylogenetic relationships among the current isolates with isolates from other geographical areas were determined by phylogenetic trees construction using the Neighbor-Joining algorithm.