Peptide ELISA and FRET-qPCR Identified a Significantly Higher Prevalence of <i>Chlamydia suis</i> in Domestic Pigs Than in Feral Swine from the State of Alabama, USA
Md Monirul Hoque,
Folasade Adekanmbi,
Subarna Barua,
Kh. Shamsur Rahman,
Virginia Aida,
Brian Anderson,
Anil Poudel,
Anwar Kalalah,
Sara Bolds,
Steven Madere,
Steven Kitchens,
Stuart Price,
Vienna Brown,
B. Graeme Lockaby,
Constantinos S. Kyriakis,
Bernhard Kaltenboeck,
Chengming Wang
Affiliations
Md Monirul Hoque
College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
Folasade Adekanmbi
College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
Subarna Barua
College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
Kh. Shamsur Rahman
College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
Virginia Aida
College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
Brian Anderson
Swine Research and Education Center, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36830, USA
Anil Poudel
College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
Anwar Kalalah
College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
Sara Bolds
School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
Steven Madere
School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
Steven Kitchens
College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
Stuart Price
College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
Vienna Brown
National Feral Swine Damage Management Program, Wildlife Services, Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, United States Department of Agriculture, Fort Collins, CO 80521, USA
B. Graeme Lockaby
School of Forestry and Wildlife Sciences, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
Constantinos S. Kyriakis
College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
Bernhard Kaltenboeck
College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
Chengming Wang
College of Veterinary Medicine, Auburn University, Auburn, AL 36849, USA
Chlamydia suis is an important, highly prevalent, and diverse obligate intracellular pathogen infecting pigs. In order to investigate the prevalence and diversity of C. suis in the U.S., 276 whole blood samples from feral swine were collected as well as 109 fecal swabs and 60 whole blood samples from domestic pigs. C. suis-specific peptide ELISA identified anti-C. suis antibodies in 13.0% of the blood of feral swine (26/276) and 80.0% of the domestic pigs (48/60). FRET-qPCR and DNA sequencing found C. suis DNA in 99.1% of the fecal swabs (108/109) and 21.7% of the whole blood (13/60) of the domestic pigs, but not in any of the assayed blood samples (0/267) in feral swine. Phylogenetic comparison of partial C. suis ompA gene sequences and C. suis-specific multilocus sequencing typing (MLST) revealed significant genetic diversity of the C. suis identified in this study. Highly genetically diverse C. suis strains are prevalent in domestic pigs in the USA. As crowding strongly enhances the frequency and intensity of highly prevalent Chlamydia infections in animals, less population density in feral swine than in domestic pigs may explain the significantly lower C. suis prevalence in feral swine. A future study is warranted to obtain C. suis DNA from feral swine to perform genetic diversity of C. suis between commercial and feral pigs.
