Hindawi Publishing Corporation he Scientiic World Journal Volume 2013, Article ID 160376, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2013/160376 Research Article 16S rRNA and Omp31 Gene Based Molecular Characterization of Field Strains of B. melitensis from Aborted Foetus of Goats in India Ajay Singh, 1 Vivek Kumar Gupta, 2 Amit Kumar, 3 Vikas Kumar Singh, 2 and Shivasharanappa Nayakwadi 2 1 College of Biotechnology, Uttar Pradesh Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayay Pashu Chikitsa Vigyan Vishwavidyalaya Evum Go-Anusandhan Sansthan (DUVASU), Mathura 281001, India 2 Animal Health Division, Central Institute for Research on Goats (CIRG), Makhdoom, Mathura 281001, India 3 Department of Veterinary Microbiology, Uttar Pradesh Pandit Deen Dayal Upadhayay Pashu Chikitsa Vigyan Vishwavidyalaya Evum Go-Anusandhan Sansthan (DUVASU), Mathura 281001, India Correspondence should be addressed to Amit Kumar; balyan74@gmail.com Received 23 August 2013; Accepted 30 September 2013 Academic Editors: A. Ludwig and A. M. Sahag´ un Prieto Copyright © 2013 Ajay Singh et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Brucellosis is a reemerging infectious zoonotic disease of worldwide importance. In human, it is mainly caused by Brucella melitensis, a natural pathogen for goats. In India, a large number of goats are reared in semi-intensive to intensive system within the close vicinity of human being. At present, there is no vaccination and control strategy for caprine brucellosis in the country. hus, to formulate an efective control strategy, the status of etiological agent is essential. To cope up with these, the present study was conducted to isolate and identify the prevalent Brucella species in caprine brucellosis in India. he 30 samples (fetal membrane, fetal stomach content and vaginal swabs) collected throughout India from the aborted fetus of goats revealed the isolation of 05 isolates all belonging to Brucella melitensis biovars 3. All the isolates produced ampliication products of 1412 and 720 bp in polymerase chain reaction with genus and species speciic 16S rRNA and omp31 gene based primers, respectively. Moreover, the ampliication of omp31 gene in all the isolates conirmed the presence of immuno dominant outer membrane protein (31 kDa omp) in all the ield isolates of B. melitensis in aborted foetus of goats in India. hese indings can support the development of omp31 based speciic serodiagnostic test as well as vaccine for the control of caprine brucellosis in India. 1. Introduction Brucellosis is an infectious zoonotic disease of worldwide importance in both animals and humans [1, 2] caused by microorganisms belonging to the genus Brucella, Gram- negative facultative intracellular bacteria [3–5]. It is a bacte- rial zoonosis of worldwide importance, and of major public health and economic signiicance [4, 6, 7]. here are few diferent species of Brucella, each with slightly diferent host speciicity. Six species of Brucella have been identiied: B. melitensis, B. suis, B. abortus, B. ovis, B. neotomae, and B. canis [8]. his classiication is based on the animal host speciicity, susceptibility to dyes, metabolic patterns, phage typing, and serological testing [9–12]. B. melitensis uses the sheep and goats as its preferred natural hosts but other animals and human being may also be infected [13, 14]. Other species like B. abortus, B. suis, B. ovis, and B. neotomae mainly infect cattle, pigs, sheep, and rodents. Recently, new species were discovered: in marine mammals (B. pinnipedialis and B. cetacea), in the common vole Microtus tusarvalis (B. microti), and even in a breast implant (B. inopinata)[2]. Caprine brucellosis causes serious economic losses by way of abortions and stillbirths, besides being potentially hazardous to the animal handlers. Infected parturitions (normal birth or abortion) and infected males play important roles in the spread of infection in herds [2, 3, 13, 14]. Control of infection is necessary not only to reduce economic of losses but also to avoid contamination in man [15]. In India, 13.4%