Isolation of pathogenic Listeria monocytogenes and detection of antibodies against phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C in buffaloes

The isolation of pathogenic Listeria spp. in bacteriological samples, and anti-phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C (anti-PIPLC) antibodies in sera of buffaloes were studied. Isolation of the pathogen was attempted from the samples by selective enrichment in University of Vermont Medium and plating onto Dominguez-Rodriguez isolation agar. Pathogenicity of the isolates was tested by Christie, Atkins, Munch Petersen test and mice incoulation test. Listeria spp. and L. monocytogenes were isolated from 8.8 and 2.4%, and 4.8 and 1.6% of 125 each meat and blood samples, respectively. Out of the 125 samples each of feacal, nasal and vaginal swabs from buffaloes 8 and 4%, 13.6 and 2.4%, and 6.4 and 2.4% were positive for Listeria spp. and L. monocytogenes, respectively. L. ivanovii was confirmed from 0.8% vaginal sample. A total of 125 serum samples were tested by phosphatidylinositol-specific phospholipase C (PIPLC) based indirect ELISA of which 4.0% turned out to be seropositive.