MOLECULAR IDENTIFICATION AND DETECTION OF VIRULENCE GENES AMONG PSEUDOMONAS AERUGINOSA ISOLATED FROM CANINE OTITIS

Pseudomonas aeruginosa possesses a variety of virulence factors that contribute to its pathogenicity.In order to find out any relationship between virulence factors and manifestation of P. aeruginosa infections, we detected virulence factors among these isolates by PCR.The Opr F, Exo A, Pcr V genes of P. aeruginosa were targeted for the study.A total of 70 ear swabs, from dogs suffering from chronic otitis with signs such as unilateral and bilateral ear damage, were collected from different regions of Mumbai.Out of 70 ear swabs processed, 33 number of (47.1%)Pseudomonas isolates were recovered and their confirmation was done by biochemical tests like MR, VP, Indole, etc. PCR assay was carried out for detection of virulence genes of P. aeruginosa isolates.Results indicate that, out of 33 isolates, 27(81.8%),24 (72.7%) and 13 (39.3%)isolates showed presence of Exo A, Opr F and Pcr V genes respectively, by PCR assay.The findings of this study indicate that the PCR assay is useful for rapid and accurate detection of Exo A, Opr F and Pcr V virulence genes of Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates from canine otitis.