Al-Qadisiyah Journal of Veterinary Medicine Sciences
Official Journal of the College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Al-Qadisiyah

Investigation of fungal isolates of chronic rhinitis in sheep

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

Oday Sami Decan
Asaad Jassim Abid

Department of Internal and Preventive Veterinary Medicine, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Al-Qadisiyah, Iraq

https://doi.org/10.29079/qjvms.2024.152833.1035
Abstract
Fungal rhinitis is an important infection in sheep characterized by its chronic status. The study was conducted to clinically and in vitro characterize fungal rhinitis in sheep. The current study was conducted to clinically examine chronic suspected fungal rhinitis in sheep and to isolate fungal species from the lesions and characterize these isolates using molecular techniques. Clinical examination and nasal endoscopy were used first to identify clinical status and nasal lesions in 80 sheep distributed over nine livestock farms in Babylon Province, Iraq. Then, a total of 160 lesion nasal swabs (80 for direct smear and 80 for cultivation) were collected from 80 sheep. The swabs were stained with Grocott's methenamine silver stain (GMS) to identify fungal hyphae. Furthermore, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and partial gene sequencing methods were performed based on the 18S rRNA gene. The results of the clinical examination of each animal revealed slightly increases in the body temperature, emaciation, nasal congestion, nasal mucoid, mucopurulent, or blood-stained discharge, sneezing, nasal itching. Moreover, varied types of nasal lesions were visualized by endoscope. For the cultivation of the swabs, the findings demonstrated the isolation of 55/80(68.75%) isolates. The endoscopy showed various types of chronic lesions, such as nodules and ulcerations. Based on the molecular methods, the results revealed the presence of seven species of fungi; 13(16.25%) Aspergillus terrusre,10(12.5%) A. flavus,11 (13.75) A.niger,9(11.25%)Rhizopus arrhazus,7(8.75%)Alternaria alternate,3(3.75%)A.tenesumma, and 2(2.5%) Penicillumsoppi.The phylogenetic analysis recorded 20 distinct isolates that were similar in their sequence to global isolates from Saudi Arabia, India, Pakistan, and China. The impact of the study can be emphasized that chronic rhinitis in sheep was primarily caused by Aspergillus species. These isolates were sequencing-based similar to those isolated from different world regions indicating high evolution in the current isolates and more need for improvement of animal health and management. However, the study comes with limitation of the area size sampled, which can be solved with future studies.

Keywords

Fungal infection
molecular diagnosis
nasal infection
sheep rhinitis
Crossmark
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Al-Qadisiyah Journal of Veterinary Medicine Sciences
Volume 24, Issue 1
January 2025
Pages 55-62

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