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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, February 1998, p. 462-466, Vol. 36, No. 2
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Development and Evaluation of a PCR-Based Assay for
Detection of Haemobartonella felis in Cats and
Differentiation of H. felis from Related Bacteria by
Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis
Joanne B.
Messick,*
Linda M.
Berent, and
Sandra
K.
Cooper
Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, The
University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, Urbana, Illinois 61802
Received 13 June 1997/Returned for modification 15 October
1997/Accepted 4 November 1997
The 16S rRNA gene of Haemobartonella felis was
amplified by using universal eubacterial primers and was subsequently
cloned and sequenced. Based on this sequence data, we designed a set of
H. felis-specific primers. These primers selectively
amplified a 1,316-bp DNA fragment of the 16S rRNA gene of H. felis from each of four experimentally infected cats at peak
parasitemia. No PCR product was amplified from purified DNA of
Eperythrozoon suis, Mycoplasma genitalium, and
Bartonella bacilliformis. Blood from the experimental cats
prior to infection was negative for PCR products and was greatly
diminished or absent 1 month after doxycycline treatment. The overall
sequence identity of this fragment varied by less than 1.0% among
experimentally infected cats. By taking into consideration the
secondary structure of the 16S rRNA molecule, we were able to further
verify the alignment of nucleotides and quality of our sequence data.
In this PCR assay, the minimum detectable number of H. felis organisms was determined to be between 50 and 704. The
potential usefulness of restriction enzymes DdeI and
MnlI for distinguishing H. felis from closely
related bacteria was examined. This is the first report of the utility
of PCR-facilitated diagnosis and discrimination of H. felis
infection in cats.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: University of
Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, College of Veterinary Medicine, 1008 West Hazelwood Dr., Urbana, IL 61802. Phone: (217) 333-5372. Fax: (217) 244-7421. E-mail: jmessick{at}cvm.uiuc.edu.
Journal of Clinical Microbiology, February 1998, p. 462-466, Vol. 36, No. 2
0095-1137/98/$04.00+0
Copyright © 1998, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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