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Bacterial abortive agents such as Brucella spp., Salmonella spp., Campylobacter spp., Listeria spp. cause serious infections that lead to significant economic losses in cattle and sheep breeding. These bacteria can be easily cultured under in vitro laboratory conditions. Abortions caused by intracellular bacteria such as Coxiella burnetii (C. burnetii), Chlamydophila abortus (C. abortus) and Francisella tularensis (F. tularensis) are less prevalent in abortive cases and the diagnosis of these bacteria, many of which need to cell culture for cultivation and biosafety level-3 laboratory facilities for safe working, can be made by PCR. In this study, it was aimed to determine the molecular prevalence of C. burnetii, C. abortus and F. tularensis agents, which were neglected during the diagnosis of abortions, in cattle and sheep collected from different regions of Türkiye. A total of 395 clinical materials were analyzed via agent-specific commercial Real-Time PCR. As a result, the molecular prevalence of F. tularensis, C. burnetii and C. abortus was determined as 14%, 2.9% and 2.28%, respectively. F. tularensis in cattle clinical samples and C. burnetii in sheep clinical samples were not found. This is the first report that F. tularensis was found as an agent in an abortive material in Türkiye. Although it differs in terms of prevalence, it has been determined that these microorganisms, which are neglected in routine diagnosis, can be spread with aborted materials, especially vaginal discharge, which may pose a risk of transmission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tularemia; caused by Francisella tularensis is a zoonotic disease which can be seen endemic in the northern hemisphere. The distribution of tularemia cases according to years and the characteristics of the disease in Ankara province were evaluated in this descriptive study. The number of tularemia cases according to years in Ankara were as follows: 129 cases in 2010, 349 in 2011, 87 in 2012, 2 in 2013, 0 in 2014, 23 in 2015, 86 in 2016, 16 in 2017 and 4 in 2018. 52.3% of cases seen in the years 2010- 2018 were female (n = 364) and 47.7% (n = 332) were male and the mean age was 38.99 ± 18.82. In these cases, the use of waterwork was 66.7%, the use of public fountains was 40.3%, the use of well water was 7.0%, the presence of rodents around was 25.6%. To control tularemia, well water, spring water and fountains outside the grid system must be controlled; used water tanks must be maintained and cleaned at regular intervals. It is important that the water against microbiological contamination are chlorinated by automatic devices and the residual chlorine measurements are made without interruption. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Tularemia is a zoonotic infection caused by Francisella tularensis and has gained renewed importance since there has been a recent increase in the number of human cases in several countries across the world. In this study the existence of F. tularensis in rodents and in water was investigated by culture and PCR techniques. Also, F. tularensis specific antibodies were investigated by serological methods in sheep. At the end of the study, F. tularensis was isolated from one water sample by culture and PCR techniques, on the other hand, 27.6% seropositivity was detected in the blood samples of sheep. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]