Genotyping of Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium isolates from naturally infected lofts of domestic pigeons in Ahvaz by IS901 RFLP

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Avian tuberculosis is one of the most important infections affecting most species of birds. Mycobacterium avium can not only infect all species of birds, but also infect some domesticated mammals. The most crucial aspect of control and eradication scheme is identification of infection sources and transmission routs. Molecular techniques such as restriction fragment length polymorphism and pulse field gel electrophoresis have been shown to be much more discriminatory and suitable for use in the epidemiological study. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eighty suspected pigeons to avian tuberculosis based on their clinical signs, were subjected to the study. Forty Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium isolates out of a total of 51 identified isolates were subjected to the test. RESULTS: IS901-RFLP using Pvu II was successfully conducted and produced 7 patterns. The majority of isolates (60%) were RFLP type PI.1. This type was the most similar type to standard strain. However, all the patterns obtained in this study were different from the standard strain. CONCLUSION: The result of this study indicate that these isolates probably are limited to Khuzestan region. We recommend DNA fingerprinting differentiation of non tuberculous Mycobacteria particularly Mycobacterium avium complex isolated from infected birds and human to possibly find source of infections.