Detection of Streptobacillus spp. in feral rats by specific polymerase chain reaction.
Streptobacillus moniliformis is an etiological agent of rat-bite fever and Haverhill fever in human infection. As the currently available methods for identifying the causative bacteria are not satisfactory, we attempted to establish them by PCR using newly designed primers for the 16S rRNA gene of S. moniliformis. We then determined the prevalence of Streptobacillus spp. in two species of feral rats that inhabit an urban region in Japan, because information on the prevalence of the bacteria in feral rats is obscure. The use of PCR with newly designed primers showed that an extremely high proportion of R. norvegicus harbored the bacteria (61/66, 92%), whereas the prevalence was only 58% in R. rattus (30/52). The nucleotide sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA gene of Streptobacillus spp. isolated from oral swabs of feral rats showed at least two different types of bacteria among isolates from R. norvegicus and R. rattus.
Kimura
Masanobu
M
Department of Veterinary Science, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan.
Tanikawa
Tsutomu
T
Suzuki
Michio
M
Koizumi
Nobuo
N
Kamiyama
Tsuneo
T
Imaoka
Koichi
K
Yamada
Akio
A
D000818:Animals; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000235:genetics; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D005674:Fusobacterium Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D007564:Japan; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D051381:Rats; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D013288:Streptobacillus / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification*
D017931:DNA Primers; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004275:DNA, Ribosomal; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S