Abstract

Salmonella serovars are one of the primary food-borne pathogens that cause infections in both animals and humans. The hyperinvasive locus A (hilA) gene has an important role in Salmonella pathogenicity. This gene encodes an ompR/ToxR transcriptional regulator that activates the expression of invasion gene and facilitates the entry of the bacteria into intestinal epithelial cells. Our goal of this research was to isolateSalmonella from poultry and detect their hilA gene by Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) technique. For this purpose 520 samples were obtained from ostrich, pigeon and chicken in poultry farms of East Azarbayjan province which is located in northwest of Iran. Samples were tested by bacteriological and serological tests. PCR was applied with one pair of primers targeting the Salmonella hilA gene. According to the results of bacteriological tests 45 Salmonella strains were found among 520 of total samples. The prevalence of Salmonella in ostrich, pigeon and chicken were determined as 6.66, 15.55, and 7.25%, respectively. Salmonella isolates represented four different serogroups (D1.B.C1, and C2) which Salmonella serogroup D1 was the most dominant serogroup. The PCR of the hilA gene produced a band of 854 bp with all the Salmonella isolates. This research indicated the relatively high prevalence of Salmonella spp in pigeon compare with ostrich and chicken and suggested that the hilA gene could be present in different Salmonella strains from different hosts in poultry.

Key words: PCR, Ostrich, Salmonella, hilA, Iran.