title: Genetic diversity and epizootiology of Chlamydophila psittaci prevalent among the captive and feral avian species based on VD2 region of ompA gene.
abstract: To study genetic diversity and occurrence of Chlamydophila psittaci, a total of 1,147 samples from 11 avian orders including 53 genera and 113 species of feral and captive birds were examined using ompA gene based nested PCR. Three types of chlamydiae: C. psittaci (94.12%), C. abortus (4.41%) and unknown Chlamydophila sp. (1.47%) were identified among 68 (5.93%) positive samples (Psittaciformes-59, Ciconiiformes-8 and Passeriformes-1). Based on nucleotide sequence variations in the VD2 region of ompA gene, all 64 detected C. psittaci strains were grouped into 4 genetic clusters. Clusters I, II, III and IV were detected from 57.35%, 19.12%, 10.29% and 7.35% samples respectively. A single strain of unknown Chlamydophila sp. was found phylogenetically intermediate between Chlamydophila species infecting avian and mammalian hosts. Among Psittaciformes, 28 out of 81 tested species including 10 species previously unreported were found to be chlamydiae positive. Chlamydiosis was detected among 8.97% sick and 48.39% dead birds as well 4.43% clinically normal birds. Therefore, it was observed that though various genetically diverse chlamydiae may cause avian chlamydiosis, only a few C. psittaci strains are highly prevalent and frequently associated with clinical/subclinical infections.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Veterinary Science, United Graduate School of Veterinary Sciences, Gifu, Japan.
authors.forename: Rajesh
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Chahota
authors.forename: Hirohito
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Ogawa
authors.forename: Yoko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Mitsuhashi
authors.forename: Kenji
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Ohya
authors.forename: Tsuyoshi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Yamaguchi
authors.forename: Hideto
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Fukushi
mesh_terms: D000595:Amino Acid Sequence; D000818:Animals; D000829:Animals, Domestic / Q000382:microbiology; D000835:Animals, Wild / Q000382:microbiology*; D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins / Q000235:genetics*; D001483:Base Sequence; D001715:Bird Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D001717:Birds / Q000382:microbiology; D002691:Chlamydophila psittaci / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D014644:Genetic Variation; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D015995:Prevalence; D017434:Protein Structure, Tertiary; D009956:Psittacosis / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology / Q000662:veterinary*; D016415:Sequence Alignment
chemical_list: D001425:Bacterial Outer Membrane Proteins; C078167:OMPA outer membrane proteins