Molecular and phylogenetic characterization of Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale isolates from turkey, quail, partridge and domestic pigeon in Iran

Ornithobacterium rhinotracheale (ORT) is a respiratory pathogen which has been isolated throughout the world from numerous bird species. The present study was designed to investigate molecular and phylogenetic characterization of ORT isolates from turkey, quail, partridge and domestic pigeon. For this purpose, one bacterial strain from each bird species which was isolated in a previous work was compared with chicken and some other bird species isolates. Isolates were streaked on 5% sheep blood agar containing gentamicin. Genomic DNA was extracted from fresh cultures by boiling of bacteria suspension. PCR was performed by using of specific primers for partial amplification of 16S rRNA gene. PCR products of ORT isolates were sequenced in both directions by an automatic sequencer. Our ORT isolates showed high identity (98.1% to 100%) in sequence of 16S rRNA gene to related data in GenBank. Phylogenetic analysis of these sequences showed that Iranian turkey and pigeon isolates were classified into a distinctive cluster with pigeon isolates from Taiwan, while Iranian quail and partridge isolates showed more relationship with the native isolates of chicken as well as some foreign isolates from different sources in the GenBank.