Flea-borne Mycobacterium and Mycoplasma in Small Ruminants on the Northern West Coast of Egypt
Year: 2023
Type: article
Abstract: Many pathogens that cause newly emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases are globally hosted by fleas.There is a dearth of recorded information on flea-borne animal pathogens in Egypt.The present study aimed for the first time to investigate some bacterial pathogens that could be transmitted by fleas infesting small ruminants in the Northern West of Egypt using conventional PCRs and sequence analyses.Of 249 sheep selected in different localities in the study area, 223 fleas belonging to Ctenocephalides were pooled in tubes containing pleuropneumonia-like organisms (PPLOs) broth after being determined by all sexes of Ctenocephalides felis and C. canis and then crushed thoroughly.The fleas' samples were screened molecularly for Mycobacterium and Mycoplasma.Results revealed Mycobacterium is only present in two sexes of C. canis collected from the Marsa Matruh location.Mycoplasma spp. was detected in both males and females of C. felis and C. canis from Maryout in the West of Alexandria Governorate.Whereas Mycobacterium was recorded in the GenBank database as Mycobacterium bovis under accession number ON076426, the three mycoplasmas identified under accession numbers ON076423 (M.agalactiae), ON076424 (M.arginini), and ON076425 (M.ovipneumoniae).We concluded that Mycoplasma spp.and Mycobacterium bovis could be transmitted by fleas infesting sheep in Egypt.
Language: English
Subfield: Microbiology
Field: Immunology and Microbiology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: Ain Shams University
OpenAlex ID: W4378697354