Co-infection with Border Disease Virus and Brucella melitensis in an Aborted Sheep Foetus

In this study, we investigated the potential roles of BDV and Brucella melitensis infections in a case of sheep abortion. Internal organ specimens from aborted sheep foetus and EDTA whole blood sample from mother of the foetus were collected from a sheep flock in the Konya Province in the Central Anatolia region of Turkey in 2017. The presence of Brucella spp. directly assessed by bacterial isolation and detection of BDV was carried by real time RT-PCR. Genetic characterization of the BDV field isolate was conducted by sequencing the 5’- end untranslated region (UTR) region of BDV. Brucella strain was isolated from the samples of aborted sheep foetus, and it was identified as Brucella melitensis by biochemical characteristics, agglutination with monospecific A and M sera. BDV RNA was detected in EDTA whole blood sample and aborted sheep foetus. Phylogenetic analysis in 5’-UTR region allocated the field isolate of BDV obtained in this study into BDV-7 genotype. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on the dual infection of aborted sheep foetus with BDV and Brucella melitensis.