MOLECULAR EPIDEMIOLOGICAL STUDY ON PESTE DES PETITS RUMINANTS IN EGYPT 2015

Peste des petits ruminants (PPR) is one of highly contagious viral diseases of small ruminants with high economic losses due to the high morbidity and mortality. In Egypt, PPR in the last 10 years re-emerged again with high mortality in sheep flocks. There is no much data regarding the circulating Peste des petits ruminants’ virus and the epidemiological distribution in small ruminants. The study was carried out on a sheep flock of 50 rams aged of 9-12 months with clinical signs suggestive to PPR infection (fever, erosions of the buccal mucosa, pneumonia, diarrhea high morbidity and mortality). Buffy coat and lymph nodes from diseased and dead animals were sent for diagnosis and molecular diagnosis was confirmed using RT-PCR with specific primers targeting three genes; nucleo-capsid (N), fusion (F), and hemagglutinin (H). Sequencing and phylogenetic analysis was carried out on the PCR products and revealed that, the circulating virus is belonged to lineage IV along with Ethiopian strain. Key words: peste des petits ruminants; molecular; epidemiological; diagnosis; Egypt MOLEKULARNA EPIDEMIOLOSKA STUDIJA KUGE DROBNICE V EGIPTU LETA 2015 Povzetek: Kuga drobnice (PPR; iz angl. peste des petits) je ena izmed zelo nalezljivih virusnih bolezni malih prežvekovalcev, ki zaradi visoke obolevnosti in umrljivosti povzroca visoke gospodarske izgube. V Egiptu se je v zadnjih desetih letih PPR znova pojavila z visoko smrtnostjo pri ovcah. O kugi drobnice in epidemiologiji te bolezni pri malih prežvekovalcih v literaturi ne najdemo veliko podatkov. Opisana raziskava je bila opravljena v credi 50 ovnov, starih od 9 do 12 mesecev, s klinicnimi znaki, ki so kazali na prisotnost bolezni PPR (zvisana telesna temperatura, erozije ustne sluznice, pljucnica, driska, visoka obolevnost in smrtnost). Za natancno diagnosticiranje bolezni je bil uporabljen del krvi, pridobljen s centrifugiranjem, ki vsebuje veliko levkocitov in trombocitov (angl. Buffy coat) in bezgavke obolelih in mrtvih ovnov. Z uporabo specificnih oligonukleotidov za dolocanje prisotnosti nukleotidne (N), fuzijske (F) in hemaglutininske (H). beljakovine v reakciji RT PCR smo na molekularnem nivoju potrdili prisotnost okužbe s povzrociteljem PPR. Analiza zaporedja genov in filogenetske analize so bile izvedene na produktih analize PCR, pri tem pa smo ugotovili, da virus pripada liniji IV skupaj z etiopijskim sevom. Kljucne besede: kuga drobnice; molekularna diagnostika; epidemiologija; Egipt