China Animal Husbandry and Veterinary Medicine ›› 2021, Vol. 48 ›› Issue (10): 3889-3895.doi: 10.16431/j.cnki.1671-7236.2021.10.042

• Clinical Veterinary Medicine • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Isolation and Identification of a Pathogenic Enterococcus faecium from Sheep

BAI Weiqin1, LI Hong2, MENG Ke2, ZI Zhanfei2, LI Jie2, ZHAO Lijun2, WANG Jinling1, GE Riletu1, LI Qi1, JI Lintai1   

  1. 1. College of Veterinary Medicine, Inner Mongolia Agricultural University, Hohhot 010018, China;
    2. Ejin Horo Hoshoh Animal Disease Prevention and Control Center, Ordos 017200, China
  • Received:2021-04-22 Online:2021-10-20 Published:2021-09-30

Abstract: The unexplained death of sheep occurred in a sheep farm in Ordos city. In order to find the cause of the disease and formulate treatment and prevention measures, this study confirmed the disease by clinical examination, laboratory pathology and molecular biology diagnosis methods, and provided treatment plan. In this experiment, the dead sheep were used as the main materials. Firstly, the clinical examination was carried out, including autopsy and histopathological sampling. Then, the brain tissue was taken back to the laboratory by routine aseptic method for contact film, staining and microscopic examination, and bacteria isolation. Autopsy of the dead sheep showed congestion and consolidation of lung, punctate hemorrhage of epicardium, soft and muddy texture of kidney, severe brain edema. Under the microscope, the infiltration of neutrophils in cerebral cortex and the phenomenon of neutrophil vascular cannula were observed. After contact staining in deep brain tissue, Gram positive cocci were found in single or paired arrangement under microscope, and a suspicious bacterium was isolated and named NEF1. Based on the 16S rRNA gene of the isolate, the phylogenetic tree analysis by Mega 6.0 software showed that the isolate NEF1 was clustered on the same branch with the domestic isolate (MT197247.1) and the Iranian isolate (KM495939.1) of Enterococcus faecium, but was far away from other reference strains of Enterococcus faecium in GenBank. The drug sensitivity test showed that NEF1 was only moderately sensitive to ciprofloxacin, but obviously resistant to penicillin and other selected antibiotics. A strain of Enterococcus faecium NEF1 was successfully isolated and identified from the brain tissue of dead sheep in this experiment. Meanwhile, the sensitive drugs screened by the drug sensitivity test method effectively controlled the further spread of the disease in the diseased sheep farms. It provided effective experimental data for effective prevention and control of sheep bacterial diseases in this area.

Key words: sheep; Enterococcus faecium; isolation and identification; drug sensitivity test; prevention and treatment

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