Galosi Livio, Ridolfi Nicola, Fellini Cristina, Pelizzone Igor, Cusaro Stefano, Marchetti Gianluca, Canonico Matteo, Ghelfi Elena, Di Girolamo Nicola, Preziuso Silvia
School of Biosciences and Veterinary Medicine, University of Camerino, 62024 Matelica, Italy.
Clinica Veterinaria Gaudenzi, 61121 Pesaro, Italy.
Animals (Basel). 2023 Feb 7;13(4):588. doi: 10.3390/ani13040588.
causes the Upper Respiratory Tract Disease (URTD) in tortoises. The severity of the disease usually ranges from mild to severe respiratory signs. Animals can recover, die, or become asymptomatic carriers and are source of infection for other tortoises. This study describes (i) the clinical history and the results obtained in ten years of diagnostic PCR activity for detecting in different species of captive tortoises in Italy, and (ii) the phylogenetic analysis of the 16S rRNA gene sequences of . A total of 26.0% out of 169 samples resulted positive by PCR and 32 out of 75 (42.7%) animals with symptoms were positive. Sequences ob-tained from the PCR products were conserved, differed from the sequence of the type strain PS6, and were identical to many sequences deposited in databases. In particular, the sequences were identical or very similar to sequences obtained previously from tortoises in It-aly. Since samples collected from different anatomical sites resulted positive, it is suggested that pools of conjunctival, nasal and oral swabs are tested for diagnostic purpose in both symptomatic and asymptomatic animals.
导致乌龟患上上呼吸道疾病（URTD）。该疾病的严重程度通常从轻微到严重的呼吸道症状不等。患病动物可能康复、死亡，或成为无症状携带者，进而成为其他乌龟的感染源。本研究描述了（i）在意大利对不同种类圈养乌龟进行十年诊断性聚合酶链式反应（PCR）检测的临床病史及结果，以及（ii）对该病原体16S核糖体RNA（rRNA）基因序列的系统发育分析。169个样本中共有26.0%通过PCR检测呈阳性，75只出现症状的动物中有32只（42.7%）呈阳性。从PCR产物中获得的序列具有保守性，与该病原体模式菌株PS6的序列不同，并且与数据库中许多该病原体的序列相同。特别是，这些序列与之前从意大利乌龟身上获得的序列相同或非常相似。由于从不同解剖部位采集的样本均呈阳性，因此建议对有症状和无症状动物的结膜、鼻腔和口腔拭子混合样本进行诊断检测。
