First Report on Ovine Paratuberculosis in the Sudan: Diagnosis Using Different Techniques

Sanaa M Idris; Eva A Ali; Wisal A Elmagzoub; Julius B Okuni; Mohamed E Mukhtar; Lonzy Ojok; ElSagad Eltayeb; Ahmed Abd El Wahed; Kamal H Eltom; Ahmed A Gameel

doi:10.3390/ani12233312

First Report on Ovine Paratuberculosis in the Sudan: Diagnosis Using Different Techniques

Animals (Basel). 2022 Nov 27;12(23):3312. doi: 10.3390/ani12233312.

Authors

Sanaa M Idris^{1

2}, Eva A Ali¹, Wisal A Elmagzoub^{1

3}, Julius B Okuni⁴, Mohamed E Mukhtar⁵, Lonzy Ojok^{4

6}, ElSagad Eltayeb⁷, Ahmed Abd El Wahed⁸, Kamal H Eltom¹, Ahmed A Gameel²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Animal Health and Safety of Animal Products, Institute for Studies and Promotion of Animal Exports, University of Khartoum, Shambat 13314, Khartoum North, Sudan.
² Department of Pathology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Khartoum, Shambat 13314, Khartoum North, Sudan.
³ Department of Biology and Biotechnology, College of Applied and Industrial Sciences, University of Bahri, Alkadaro 13311, Khartoum North, Sudan.
⁴ College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (COVAB), Makerere University, Kampala P.O. Box 7062, Uganda.
⁵ Department of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Khartoum, Shambat 13314, Khartoum North, Sudan.
⁶ Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Gulu University, Gulu P.O. Box 166, Uganda.
⁷ Department of Surgery, Faculty of Medicine, Al Neelain University, Almogran 11111, Khartoum, Sudan.
⁸ Institute of Animal Hygiene and Veterinary Public Health, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Leipzig, An den Tierkliniken 43, D-04103 Leipzig, Germany.

Abstract

Paratuberculosis (PTB) has been reported in the Sudan in cattle and goats for more than 50 years but has never been reported in sheep. However, suspicion of the disease in a breeding flock of sheep in Khartoum North locality was made due to a history of unknown cause of loss of weight. Blood and faecal samples were collected from all animals (N = 59): harvested sera were tested for anti-Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) antibodies by Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA); faeces were screened for acid-fast bacilli by Ziehl-Neelsen staining, tested for MAP DNA by recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) and some faecal samples were cultured for MAP isolation. Typical MAP acid-fast bacilli were seen in 10.2% (6/59) of the faecal smears, 37.5% of the tested faecal samples (12/32) were positive for MAP DNA and only 3 (5.1%) animals were seropositive for MAP. MAP positive cultures were obtained from 2 out the 6 samples showing typical MAP acid-fast bacilli; the isolates were confirmed by real-time PCR and sequencing. As sheep are animals of utmost economic importance as the main export animals for the country, this first report of ovine PTB warrants special considerations and more investigations for planning control programmes of the disease.

Keywords: Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis; recombinase polymerase amplification; sheep.

Abstract

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