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OJVRTM
Online Journal of Veterinary Research©
Volume
10 (2) : 146 - 155, 2006. Extensively redacted 2018.
Evidence that sheep and goats
are a reservoir for mycobacteria in Greece
J.A.
Ikonomopoulos
Agricultural
University of Athens, Faculty of Animal Science, Department of Anatomy and
Physiology, Ieraodos 75, 11855, Athens, Greece
ABSTRACT
Ikonomopoulos JA.,
Evidence that sheep and goats are a reservoir for mycobacteria in Greece, Onl J Vet Res., 10
(2) : 146 - 155, 2006. Tuberculosis remains a zoonosis
of worldwide significance. Control measures applied in Greece have caused a
considerable decrease in the prevalence of tuberculosis in animals but the
disease has not been eradicated. We evaluated the spread of all the major
mycobacterial pathogens in blood of sheep and goats from a predominately
agricultural part of Greece by a PCR for detection and identification of DNA of
Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex, Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium and Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP). Heparinised blood samples were collected from 408 sheep and goats
(291 sheep and 117 goats) from 30 flocks (19 flocks of sheep and 11 of goats)
from Nomos Thesportias, Trikalon,
and Karditsas.
We found that 21% blood samples from sheep and 90% of goat herds reacted
positive to PCR. In percentages, 5.6% were insertion elements IS900 (MAP),
3.9%, IS1245 and 11.5% IS6110 in 46.6%, 40%, and 60% of farms, respectively.
Our findings suggest that a small local ruminant population may be tolerant to
certain types of mycobacterial infections that remain clinically silent and may
be reservoir for the organisms.
Key words:
tuberculosis of sheep and goats, polymerase chain reaction.
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