Rapid identification and genotyping of the honeybee pathogen by combining culturing and multiplex quantitative PCR.

BACKGROUND

American Foulbrood (AFB) is a devastating disease of honey bee () larvae caused by the spore-forming, Gram-positive bacterium . In most countries, the law requires mandatory reporting of AFB to the veterinary authority.

AIM AND METHODS

To speed up detection and genotyping of spores, we compared different culturing protocols on Columbia sheep blood agar and developed a new multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction to distinguish between the two relevant genotypes enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) I and ERIC II.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION

As confirmed by reference strains and field isolates, the new identification and genotyping protocol halves the time of current workflows, lessens labor-intension, allows a higher throughput of samples for monitoring, and permits a faster intervention to prevent the spread of AFB.