© The Author(s). 2019 Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and non-commercial reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. A BSTRACT Respiratory infections of sheep and goats cause heavy morbidity and mortality, leading to huge economic losses. Conventional methods of diagnosis that include isolation and identifcation of incriminating microbes are time-consuming and fraught with logistic challenges. Direct detection of incriminating microbes using molecular tools is gaining popularity in clinical, microbiological settings. In this study, a total of 50 samples (44 nasal swabs and 6 lung tissues) from sheep and goats were screened for the detection of diferent bacterial species by in vitro amplifcation of genus or species-specifc genes. Histophilus somni was detected in 2% goat samples, Trueperella pyogenes in 20% goat nasal swabs, whereas 22% goat nasal swab samples were found positive for Mycoplasma spp. None of the samples from sheep was detected positive for H. somni, T. pyogenes, Mycoplasma spp. Similarly, all samples, irrespective, whether from sheep or goats, showed negative results for Pasteurella multocida, Mannheimia haemolytica, and Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis. Keywords: Goat, Histophilus somni, Mycoplasma, Respiratory infections, Sheep, Trueperella pyogenes. Ind J of Vet Sci and Biotech (2019): 10.21887/ijvsbt.15.2.6 Molecular Detection of Bacterial Pathogens Directly from the Nasal Swabs and Lung Tissue of Sheep and Goats Sunaina Thakur 1 , Subhash Verma 2 *, Prasenjit Dhar 3 , Mandeep Sharma 4 I NTRODUCTION I nfectious diseases are a common cause of economic losses to small ruminants, mainly sheep and goat husbandry. To enable sheep and goat husbandry viable and sustainable amongst rural people, the development and use of techniques for early and accurate diagnosis hold prime importance (Chakraborty et al., 2014). Respiratory diseases of small ruminants are multifactorial (Lacasta et al., 2008), and there are multiple etiological agents responsible for the respiratory disease complex. The most common bacterial causes of respiratory infections are P. multocida, Mannheimia hemolytica, Mycoplasma spp., Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis, Histophilus somni, and Trueperella pyogenes. These bacteria are commonly found in the respiratory tract of sheep and goats and induce morbidity and mortality under immunosuppressive conditions. Mycoplasma infections cause indirect economic losses as a result of emaciation, delayed market weight, and infertility, owing to the sub-acute or chronic pneumonia, especially in small ruminants, which are of great importance in rural development. A major health problem of small ruminants is pneumonia/ pleuropneumonia, which may be caused by Mycoplasma species alone or in conjunction with other microbes (Adehan et al., 2006). The isolation of these bacterial species is time-consuming and requires diferent media and laboratory conditions. The objective of this study was to fll up the gap in the literature in the detection of bacterial pathogens directly from the nasal swabs and lung tissue of sheep and goats through PCR technology. RESEARCH ARTICLE 1-4 Department of Veterinary Microbiology, DGCN College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, CSKHPKV, Palampur-176062 (HP), India Corresponding Author: Subhash Verma, Department of Veterinary Microbiology, DGCN College of Veterinary Science and Animal Husbandry, CSKHPKV, Palampur-176062 (HP), India, e-mail: sverma8@gmail.com How to cite this article: Thakur, S., Verma, S., Dhar, P. and Sharma, M. (2019). Molecular Detection of Bacterial Pathogens Directly from the Nasal Swabs and Lung Tissue of Sheep and Goats. Ind J Vet Sci and Biotech, 15(2): 22-25. Source of support: Nil Confict of interest: None. Submitted: 25/08/2019 Accepted: 10/09/2019 Published: 25/11/2019 M ATERIALS AND METHODS Sampling and Transportation A total of 50 samples comprising of 44 nasal swabs from 15 sheep and 29 goats; and 6 lung tissues from 2 sheep and 4 goats having respiratory disease symptoms (nasal discharge, sneezing, coughing, and respiratory distress) were collected in PBS and transported on ice to the laboratory. All samples were stored at 4ºC until processed. Molecular Detection through In Vitro Amplifcation All samples were processed for DNA extraction as per the Phenol Chloroform Isoamyl alcohol (PCI) protocol given by Sambrook et al. (1989). The polymerase chain reaction was performed for the detection of diferent bacterial species