Sero-diagnosis of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis affecting camels using recombinant phospholipase D (rPLD) and anti-camels IgY-conjugate

Caseous lymphadenitis has universally prevalence especially in Saudi Arabia causing pseudotuberculosis or caseous lymphadenitis (CLA) in sheep and camels. The affected camels showed sever emaciation and multiple abscesses. The current study is aimed to evaluate the incidence of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis infections in camels in the Kingdome of Saudi Arabia and sero-diagnosis of the disease using recombinant PLD protein as coating antigen and anti-camel conjugated peroxidase as a specific anti species in enzyme linked immuno-sorbant assay. A total of 280 adult one humped camels from different localities; 35 apparently infected camels with CLA and 245 apparently normal camels were examined clinically and subjected to standard bacteriological technique, sero-diagnosis using ELISA and molecular detection and characterization using multiplex PCR. Thirty five out of 280 (12.5%) examined camels had superficial lymph nodes with cheesy whitish to greenish pus while 3 (1.07%) camels had congested internal lymph nodes from apparently normal camels. Using the recombinant PLD as a coating antigens and anti-camel conjugated peroxidase as a specific anti species for camels revealed high sensitivity and specificity and the ELISA technique could detect all the apparently infected animals(100%) and all the apparently normal harbouring the infections. The current study concluded that using of recombinant PLD as a coating antigens and anti-camel IgY conjugated peroxidase as a specific anti-species for camels in ELISA can be utilized for rapid and specific detection of infected and apparently normal camels infected with C. pseudotuberculosis.