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A wild elephant calf of 6-8 months of age was brought to the Centre for Wildlife Rehabilitation and Conservation (CWRC), Bokakhat, Assam, India, having symptoms of diarrhea and debility. The fecal sample was collected and studied for isolation and identification of bacteria. Eosin Methylene Blue (EMB) agar media showed moderate growth of bacterial colonies with a characteristic green metallic sheen. The isolates were subjected to Gram stain and biochemical tests (lactose, sucrose, and sorbitol). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification with universal primers showed an amplicon of 300 bp. The PCR amplified product after nucleotide BLAST showed 98.95 % similarity with the sequence of enteropathogenic Escherichia fergusonii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A study was carried out to detect the Newcastle disease virus (NDV) from various field outbreaks in Assam. Nine hundred ninety-two clinical and post -mortem samples during 2018-2021 were collected from the backyard and commercial poultry farms and subjected to molecular diagnosis of NDV by Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR). NDV could be detected in 58.78% tissue samples and 22.55% cloacal swabs collected from suspected poultry cases by RT-PCR. Organ wise study suggests that highest NDV (92.94%) was detected in trachea followed by spleen (90.62%), lung (86.95%), caecal tonsils (77.08%), proventriculus (60.81%), brain (48.91%), intestines (31.50%) and kidney (23.07%). Hence, the collection of specific tissue samples from field outbreaks for the detection of NDV is of paramount importance. In addition, RT-PCR can be considered a highly sensitive detection method for rapid and confirmative diagnosis of Newcastle disease virus. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]