Detection of Eperythrozoon suis DNA from swine blood by whole organism DNA hybridizations.

A procedure is described for isolating Eperythrozoon suis DNA of sufficient quantity and purity to serve as a probe in whole-organism DNA hybridizations for detecting parasitized swine. The E. suis organisms were isolated from the blood of infected swine; the DNA was recovered and digested with restriction endonucleases and resolved on agarose gels. In DNA hybridizations using recovered E. suis DNA, blood samples from parasitized swine could be differentiated from uninfected, control samples. A high salt lysate recovery technique was used in sampling swine whole blood for E. suis DNA and found to offer many advantages in the collection and recovery process.