Application of in situ hybridization in diagnosis of brucellosis in tissues of naturally infected sheep and goats [electronic resource].

Includes references.

Brucellosis in sheep and goats are very common in Egypt and can be diagnosed by bacteriological and serological techniques. The present study was carried out for the assessment of sensitivity and specificity of in situ hybridization (ISH). One hundred animals (50 sheep and 50 goats) from an area with history of brucella infection were included and examined serologically by Buffered acidified plate test (BAP AT) Rose Bengal plate test (RBPT), Serum agglutination test (SAT), rivanol test and complement fixation test (CFT). Out of them 19 animals were reactors serologically by one or more test (10 from sheep and 9 from goats). From 19 reactors animals, proper samples from spleen and lymph nodes were collected for bacteriological, histopathological examination and ISH techniques. The results obtained from isolation trails, 7 brucella isolets were isolated (4 from sheep and 3 from goats). The isolated straines typed as Brucella melitensis biovar 3. The results obtained by ISH on paraffin embedded section of lymph nodes using a digoxigenin labeled DNA fragment located at gene encoding at 31 KDa Brucella abortus protein, revealed 12 cases out of 19 reactors animals were positive lymph nodes. The sensitivity of ISH techniques was higher than that of microbial culture where as the specificity of ISH was 100% when compared with the conventional microbial culture. Key words: Hybridization, Brucellosis, Sheep, Goats.

Summary in Arabic.