Bacteriological and Molecular Detection of Streptococcus equi subsp. equi and Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus in Equines of Northern India

Present study was undertaken to study the prevalence of β-haemolytic streptococci in equine of northern temperate region of Jammu and Kashmir, India. One hundred and forty one samples were collected in duplicate from nasopharyngeal tract of diseased (53) and apparently healthy equine (88) for isolation and direct PCR. A total of 77 isolates of streptococci were recovered from 141 samples with an overall prevalence rate of 54.60%. Out of these 77 isolates, 52 were from diseased and 25 from apparently healthy animals. Of the 77 isolates, 4 were identified as Streptococcus equi subsp. equi, 56 as S. equi subsp. zooepidemicus and 17 as S. dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis. Thus the overall prevalence of S. equi subsp. equi, S. equi subsp. zooepidemicus and S. dysgalactiae subsp. equisimilis was 2.83, 39.71 and 12.05% respectively. The sensitivity of the PCR for the detection of S. equi species was found higher when attempted from direct swab samples.