Molecular identification of Gallibacterium from hen and analysis of its 16S rRNA gene.

Two strains of Gallibacterium, isolated from one laying hen flock in Zhengzhou City of Henan Province, were identified by the morphological observation, genus-specific PCR, and analysis of 16S rRNA gene, which was used to generate the phylogenetic tree, with the 21 members of the 12 genera belonging to Pasteurellaceae to analyze the homology. Two strains were named Yu-ZZ-HL-I-SLG and Yu-ZZ-HL-II-GZ. The comparative result of the 16S rDNA sequence shows that the 2 isolated strains are identical in sequence; the highest identity (99.9%) was observed between the isolated strain and one of the strains of Gallibacterium anatis (AF228002), the homologies between the isolated strain and 3 strains of gallibacterium accessed in NCBI (AF228016, Gallibacterium genomosp.1, AF228017, Gallibacterium genomosp.2, AF228018, Gallibacterium genomosp.1) were above 97.1%, higher than that of the isolated strain and the other strains of the other 11 genera which were between 90.7%-93.2%. It can be seen from the phylogenetic tree that the 2 isolated strains and the other 4 strain of gallibacterium fell into the same branch, furthermore the 2 isolated strains and the strain of Gallibacterium anatis locate in an internal branch, indicating that the 2 isolated strains belong to Gallibacterium anatis.