Phenotypic and Genotypic Characterization of Isolates of Dermatophilus Congolensis from Cattle, Sheep and Goats in Jos, Nigeria

Abstract

Dermatophilus congolensis is the causative agent of dermatophilosis an economically important disease of livestock, and also an agent of zoonotic importance. The disease has been reported worldwide, with a wide host range which includes domestic, wild and aquatic animals. This study was therefore undertaken to characterize isolates of the organism from cattle, sheep and goats in Nigeria. All the isolates, except two sheep isolates fermented glucose and sucrose. The whole cell protein profiles of the isolates were similar at about 62 and 20 KDa, but different at other levels. The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) of the partial 16SrRNA gene amplified all the isolates, but not other organisms included. The multiple sequence alignment of the PCR amplicons sequences showed an identity of between 98.5 and 100% across all the isolates. There was also a sequence similarity of between 99.2 and 99.76% between the isolates and the partial sequence of the type strain of D. congolensis DSM 44180T in the Genbank. Based on these techniques it may be concluded that all the isolates are the same with minor differences which were not enough to speciate them.