Prevalence of Chlamydophila felis by PCR among healthy pet cats in Italy

Conjunctival swabs were taken from 60 healthy pet cats and tested for Chlamydophila felis by PCR assays to amplify the ompA, omp2 and groEL genes. Chlamydial DNA was detected in 2 (3.3%) cats, one of which had been vaccinated against C. felis eight months before sample collection. The nucleotide and predicted amino acid sequences of three genes from two cats showed 100% identify with the same regions amplified from conjunctival swabs of cats in the same geographic area.