Study on β-haemolyticstreptococci Infection in Equines at Different Seasons and Ages

THE present work was undertaken to study the incidence of β-haemolytic streptococci infection in equine. On clinical examination of a community of 524 Arabian foals and horses in Cairo – Egypt, a total of 164 animals were selected showing respiratory signs (31.30 %) of which 62 (11.83 %) showed respiratory signs and lymph nodes abscessation. Two hundred and twenty six swabs,164 nasal,31submaxillary lymph node pus and 31 retropharyngeal lymph node pus, were collected from 164 foals and horses showing respiratory signs and/ or abscessed lymph nodes for Streptococci isolation and PCR confirmation. A total of 150 isolates of Streptococci were recovered from 226 samples with sample-wise prevalence of (66.37%). Out of these 150 isolates, 124(28.67%) were identified as Streptococcus equisubsp. equi, 26(17.33%) as S. equisubsp.zooepidemicus and no S. dysgalactiae subsp. Equisimilis were identified. The incidence of S. equisubsp.Equi and S. equisubsp.Zooepidemicus infection among the total animal population, in the present study, was 11.83 and 4.96 % respectively. PCR technique showed high sensitivity and specificity for the detection of S. equi species in the examined samples.