ABSTRACT Infectious Bronchitis Virus (IBV) is a highly contagious pathogen that causes a serious illness with global circulation. While there is extensive data available on the virus’s existence and transmission in commercial chickens in Saudi Arabia, there is a lack of such information regarding guineafowls. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate possible IBV infection among guineafowls in the Al-Hassa Governorate of the Eastern Province, Saudi Arabia. Oropharyngeal and cloacal swabs were collected from several unvaccinated flocks of guinea fowls without respiratory clinical symptoms in November and December 2022, totaling 350 samples. Total RNA was extracted from the swab samples, and a conventional reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction was employed to detect IBV. The results revealed varying amounts of IBV in oropharyngeal and cloacal swabs at different points in time, suggesting that IBV may be widely distributed among guineafowls without exhibiting any symptoms. These findings indicate that guineafowls could act as reservoirs, influencing the ecology and epidemiology of the disease. Notably, this study reports the first occurrence of IBV in the province of Al-Ahsa, highlighting that guineafowls have been naturally exposed to the virus. To support the development of effective vaccination techniques and control measures for the disease in Saudi Arabia, the recommendation for future research endeavors is conducting ongoing surveillance, viral isolation, sequencing, phylogenetic tree analysis, and serotype characterization of IBV in guineafowls.

ABSTRACT: Coccidian infection may promote the proliferation of gut bacteria of the family Enterobacteriaceae. Bacterial infections by members of this family in rabbits can induce a negative impact on their health and lead to high mortality, especially in young individuals. This study aimed to investigate the effect of prebiotic treatment on Escherichia coli and Salmonella species during natural intestinal coccidiosis in rabbits. Forty-five rabbits were selected from a rabbit farm in Beni-Suef, Egypt. Out of the 45 rabbits, 15 were coccidia-free and used as the negative control group (NC group) and 30 were naturally infected with coccidia. The infected rabbits were randomly divided into two equal groups, the positive control group (PC) and the prebiotic treated group (PT) which was orally treated with prebiotic for 8 successive days. Faecal oocyst count was assessed daily during the course of treatment. At 8 days post-treatment, 5 rabbits from each group were euthanised for the microbiological examination of the intestinal tract. On day 8 post treatment, the PT group showed a significant (P<0.05) reduction in the oocyst count (5.33 x103 ± 0.89) with a significant (P<0.05) decline in the prevalence of E. coli and Salmonella (66.7 % and 26.4%, respectively). The PC group showed highly a significant oocyst count (21.67x103 ± 0.82 OPG), with a significant increase in the prevalence of E. coli and Salmonella (86.7 % and 46.7 %, respectively). The NC group remained coccidian free and exhibited only E. coli with no Salmonella infection. The in vitro susceptibility test showed that E. coli isolates were highly resistant to most of the tested antimicrobials while Salmonella isolates showed variable resistance profiles. In conclusion, the prebiotic treatment significantly reduced the prevalence of E. coli and Salmonella infections coexisted with intestinal coccidiosis naturally infected rabbits.

Trypanosoma evansi is enzootic in camels in Egypt, and water buffaloes act as a reservoir for camel infection. Molecular techniques have contributed towards understanding the epidemiology of T. evansi. Trypanosoma evansi was detected in acute and chronic stages of the disease in male and female mice by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using two primers. Two experiments were conducted. In experiment I, two groups consisting of 26 female and 26 male mice received 10(4) trypanosome by I/P inoculation for each mouse. In experiment II, 42 female and 42 male mice were inoculated I/P with 10² trypanosome/mouse. In addition, five mice were kept as uninfected control for each group. Mice were monitored daily for parasitaemia level during the pre-patent period using the micro-haematocrit centrifugation technique (MHCT) and conventional PCR. The primer pairs, (Trypanosoma brucei) TBR1/2 and TeRoTat1.2 (T. evansi Rode Trypanozoon antigen type [RoTat] 1.2), detected the infection after 24 hours earlier than MHCT in both experiments. The course of infection that was detected by MHCT revealed three waves of parasitaemia in female mice and two waves in male mice in the chronic stage of infection. In addition, PCR was able to detect T. evansi in different organs in the chronic stage (i.e. disappearance of parasite from blood). Application of the two primer sets on blood samples from camels showed that all samples were positive by TBR1/2 primers and only 32 of 44 were positive by TeRoTat1.2 primers. Acutely and chronically Trypanosoma-infected mice were detected by PCR in blood and organs. TBR1/2 primers were more sensitive than TeRoTat1.2 primers in detecting Trypanosoma-infected mice, and more reliable in detecting field-infected camels and excluding carrier animals.