B. mallei Infection in Dromedary, Bahrain | CDC EID

B. mallei Infection in Dromedary, Bahrain | CDC EID: "EID Journal Home > Volume 17, Number 7–July 2011

Volume 17, Number 7–July 2011
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Natural Burkholderia mallei Infection in Dromedary, Bahrain

Ulrich Wernery, Renate Wernery, Marina Joseph, Fajer Al-Salloom, Bobby Johnson, Joerg Kinne, Shanti Jose, Sherry Jose, Britta Tappendorf, Heidie Hornstra, and Holger C. Scholz Comments to Author
Author affiliations: Central Veterinary Research Laboratory, Dubai, United Arab Emirates (U. Wernery, R. Wernery, M. Joseph, B. Johnson, J. Kinne, Shanti Jose, Sherry Jose); Ministry of Municipalities Affairs and Agriculture, Barbar, Bahrain (F. Al-Salloom, B. Tappendorf); Center for Microbial Genetics and Genomics, Flagstaff, Arizona, USA (H. Hornstra); and Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, Munich, Germany (H.C. Scholz)

Suggested citation for this article

Abstract
We confirm a natural infection of dromedaries with glanders. Multilocus variable number tandem repeat analysis of a Burkholderia mallei strain isolated from a diseased dromedary in Bahrain revealed close genetic proximity to strain Dubai 7, which caused an outbreak of glanders in horses in the United Arab Emirates in 2004.

Glanders, a World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE)–listed disease, is a contagious, life-threatening disease of equids caused by the gram-negative bacterium Burkholderia mallei (1). Although eliminated in western Europe, glanders remains endemic to several Asian, African, and South American countries. It recently reappeared in Pakistan and Brazil in 2008 and 2009, respectively, and appeared for the first time in Kuwait and Bahrain in 2010 (2,3).

Natural B. mallei infections are known to occur in various mammals (e.g., cats, bears, wolves, and dogs). Camels are also susceptible to B. mallei, as experimental infection has demonstrated (4,5). We report a natural infection of dromedaries (Camelus dromedarius).

An outbreak of glanders is ongoing in equids in Bahrain (6). Most of the reported cases were found in Saar and Shakhoura in the Northern governorate. Samples from 4,843 horses and 120 donkeys were sent to the OIE Reference Laboratory at the Central Veterinary Research Laboratory in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. Of these samples, 45 horses with clinical signs consistent with glanders were positive by complement fixation test and were euthanized along with 4 donkeys that also had positive test results. In addition to horses and donkeys, dromedaries showed clinical signs of glanders, but B. mallei infection has not yet been confirmed. Here we provide evidence for a B. mallei infection in 1 of the diseased dromedaries.

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Suggested Citation for this Article

Wernery U, Wernery R, Joseph M, Al-Salloom F, Johnson B, Kinne J, et al. Natural Burkholderia mallei infection in dromedary, Bahrain. Emerg Infect Dis [serial on the Internet]. 2011 Jul [date cited]. http://www.cdc.gov/EID/content/17/7/1277.htm

DOI: 10.3201/eid1707.110222

Comments to the Authors

Please use the form below to submit correspondence to the authors or contact them at the following address:

Holger C. Scholz, Bundeswehr Institute of Microbiology, Neuherbergstr 11, 80937 Munich, Germany; email: holger1scholz@bundeswehr.org