Genotyping and genetic diversity of Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis strains isolated from caseous lymphadenitis in sheep and goat

: A high level of genetic diversity was present in C. pseudotuberculosis strains in Duhok, Iraq. ERIC-PCR is a valuable technique for epidemiological studies. Strains of C. pseudotuberculosis from sheep were genetically diverse from that of goat. The ERIC PCR was used to fingerprint 22 strains of C. pseudotuberculosis obtained from mediastinal lymph nodes of probable caseous lymphadenitis infections in sheep and goat. Previously, conventional microbiological and molecular techniques were used to identify these isolates. Compared to rpoB gene sequencing, ERIC-PCR typing revealed that 22 strains of C. pseudotuberculosis were categorized into 13 ERIC types (genotypes). Genotypes 8, 9 and 12 signified the most predominant clones. The majority of sheep strains were more diverse than goat strains. The current study’s findings indicate that different C. pseudotuberculosis clones circulate in the Duhok abattoir, and genotyping C. pseudotuberculosis strains using ERIC-PCR is essential for determining the evolutionary genetics of the species and for molecular epidemiology studies when compared to certain other molecular typing techniques.