Prevalence of American foulbrood in asymptomatic apiaries of Kurdistan, Iran

Vet World Vol.11 March-2018 Article-4

Research Article

Veterinary World, 11(3): 281-285

https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2018.281-285

M. Khezri¹, M. Moharrami², H. Modirrousta², M. Torkaman², B. Rokhzad¹, and H. Khanbabaie¹

1. Department of Veterinary Research, Kurdistan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research Center, AREEO, Sanandaj, Iran.
2. Department of Honey Bee, Silk Worm and Wildlife Research Diseases, Razi Vaccine and Serum Research Institute, AREEO, Karaj, Iran.

Background and Aim: Paenibacillus larvae subsp. larvae is the etiological agent of American foulbrood (AFB), the most virulent bacterial disease of honey bee brood worldwide. In many countries, AFB is a notifiable disease since it is highly contagious, in most cases incurable, and able to kill affected colonies. The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of P. larvae subsp. larvae in Kurdistan province apiaries by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique.

Materials and Methods: A total of 100 samples were randomly purchased from apiaries in Kurdistan, Iran. Apiaries were randomly sampled in accordance with the instructions of the veterinary organization from different provinces and were tested using PCR method and an exclusive primer of 16S rRNA for the presence of P. larvae subsp. larvae.

Results: The results of this study indicated a low level of contamination with P. larvae subsp. larvae in the Kurdistan province. The number of positive samples obtained by PCR was 2%.

Conclusion: Therefore, monitoring programs for this honeybee disease in Kurdistan should be developed and implemented to ensure that it is detected early and managed. Keywords: American foulbrood, honeybee, Kurdistan province, Paenibacillus larvae subsp. larvae, polymerase chain reaction.

Keywords: American foulbrood, honeybee, Kurdistan province, Paenibacillus larvae subsp. larvae, polymerase chain reaction.

How to cite this article: Khezri M, Moharrami M, Modirrousta H, Torkaman M, Rokhzad B and Khanbabaie H (2018) Prevalence of American foulbrood in asymptomatic apiaries of Kurdistan, Iran, Veterinary World, 11(3): 281-285.

Received: 29-11-2017 Accepted: 31-01-2018 Published online: 05-03-2018

Corresponding author: M. Khezri E-mail: khezri1836@gmail.com

DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2018.281-285

Copyright: Khezri, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.