RESEARCH ARTICLE A Study on Detection of Pathogenic Listeria monocytogenes in Ovine’s of Kashmir Region Having Abortion or History of Abortion Shabu Shoukat • S. V. S. Malik • D. B. Rawool • Ashok Kumar • Satish Kumar • Sameer Shrivastava • S. B. Barbuddhe • Durga Prasad Das • Sameer Das Received: 24 April 2013 / Revised: 16 June 2013 / Accepted: 12 July 2013 / Published online: 4 September 2013 Ó The National Academy of Sciences, India 2013 Abstract The present investigation delineates the role of listeric infection in aborted ewes or those with history of abortion from organized farms of Kashmir region. A total of 141 clinical samples was analyzed for the isolation and identification of Listeria species. On analysis four isolates were identified as Listeria monocytogenes, while 24 were non-pathogenic Listeria species. Of the four L. monocyt- ogenes isolates, two were isolated from brain tissue of aborted fetus (BrS10 and BrG36) while one each was isolated from vaginal swab (Vd13) and rectal swab (RS11) of the ewe. An overall isolation rate of 2.83 % was observed for L. monocytogenes and 17.02 % for non- pathogenic Listeria species. Further to reveal the patho- genic potential, the recovered L. monocytogenes isolates were subjected to the battery of in vitro pathogenicity test such as hemolytic activity on Sheep Blood Agar, Phos- phatidyl Inositol-Phospholipase C activity on Agar Listeria according to Ottaviani and Agosti medium, multiplex PCR targeting virulence markers genes viz., prfA, plcA, actA, hly, inlC and in vivo chick embryo inoculation test. All the L. monocytogenes isolates recovered in the present study were potentially pathogenic and on comparison, a good correlation was observed among in vitro and in vivo pathogenicity test including multiplex PCR targeting vir- ulence associated genes. Keywords Listeria monocytogenes Á Ewes Á Abortion Á Pathogenic Introduction Listeriosis is a serious invasive bacterial zoonotic disease caused by pathogenic species of Listeria namely Listeria monocytogenes and Listeria ivanovii. The disease in gen- eral exhibit neural, visceral and reproductive disorders particularly in various species of animals as well as humans especially in immunocompromised or those that are in contact with animals [1]. Basically, it is an important foodborne disease in humans because it is associated with ingestion of contaminated food and water with pathogenic Listeria spp., while in ruminants it is caused by silage feeding [2]. Besides, with a case fatality rate as high as 20–30 % [3], this pathogen remains the most critical threat to food processing industries as it is responsible for thou- sands of foodborne listeriosis cases in several industrialized countries including India. Moreover, increasing industri- alization, pollution, changing food habits, drug resistance, lack of suitable vaccine and capability of this bacterium to survive under refrigeration temperature suggests that lis- teriosis may be a single largest killer among humans and animals [3]. In India, the first documented case of listeriosis in sheep was reported from Madras in 1950 [4]. Thereafter, several reports have been documented from ovine population [5– S. Shoukat (&) Á S. V. S. Malik Á D. B. Rawool Á A. Kumar Á D. P. Das Department of Veterinary Public Health, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly, UP, India e-mail: uzma4852@gmail.com S. Kumar Á S. Shrivastava Department of Biotechnology, Indian Veterinary Research Institute, Izatnagar, Bareilly, UP, India S. B. Barbuddhe ICAR Research Complex for Goa, Old Goa 403402, Goa, India S. Das Department of Animal Health, ICAR-RC-NEH, Umiam, Meghalaya, India 123 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., India, Sect. B Biol. Sci. (Apr–June 2014) 84(2):311–316 DOI 10.1007/s40011-013-0228-0