Highlighting on the occurrence of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis in camel.

Out of the 850 examined animals at Basattin abattoir, 88(10.35%) camels were affected by CLA. 83 animals had a detectable superficial lesions and only five animals had showed visceral lesions.
The disease appeared clinically as superficial abscesses which varied in size from lemon to orange size or even larger containing pus of different colors(whitish creamy or greenish) and consistency(milk like, thick cheesy or dry firm). Most of the abscesses were closed and single, but occasionally opened and multiple. Large scars with ulcerated skin were formed in some cases especially at the inferior cervical and prescapular LNs.
Visceral lesions were rare and only represented 0.58% of examined animals. Lungs, bronchial and mediastinal LNs were the detected organs which had visceral lesions containing caseous abscesses of different sizes, colors and consistency. Some affected LNs were congested and enlarged without abscess formation.
Pus samples were collected aseptically for bacteriological isolation.
Gram stained smears revealed gram positive non-spore forming bacilli and cocci shaped bacteria. Identification scheme of the gram positive non-spore forming rods was based on 3 successive steps; PCR, API Coryne system and Vitek2 system. Two C. pseudotuberculosis isolates were identified in addition to other coryneform bacteria as C. jeikeium and C. urealyticum. In addition, other bacteria such as cellulomonas spp./Microbacterium spp. and Brevibacterium spp. were also isolated.
Serum samples were collected from 93 camels and tested by exotoxin and SWC ELISAs. Accordingly, seropositivity percentage was reported to be 58.06% for exotoxin ELISA and 61.29% for SWC ELISA. The total seropositive  camels  were 77   animals  by  the  two  ELISAs  with  a seropositivity percentage of 82.79% compared to 35.4% of animals which showed a detectable clinical signs.
The validity of bovine tuberculosis γ-IFN assay to detect cellular immunity against CLA in camels was detected. Although it was reported to be valuable to diagnose the disease in sheep and goat, but this study showed that it was of no value in camels. Consequently, there is no cross reaction between bovine and cameloid γ-IFN monoclonal antibodies.