[Detection of plague microbe in the fleas by polymerase chain reaction by using magnetic immunosorbents]

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with and without pre-treatment of the samples of the fleas Citellophilus tesquorum with magnoimmunosorbents was used to detect the plague microbe in the samples containing 142, 168, 193 or more bacterial cells. PCR analysis reduced the time of tests of ectoparasites for plague to 6 hours. The use of a combination of PCR and magnoimmunosorbent simplified the most time-consuming and longest stage of isolation of plague microbial DNA from the suspensions of the fleas, which allows the time of a test to be reduced to 3 hours. The administration of an affine sorbent having magnetic properties during treatment of samples with plague-infected exoparasites for PCR analysis makes it possible to have a specific concentration of Yersinia pestis and to prevent the inhibitory effect of flea tissues on the polymerase chain reaction, to use the boiling method for isolating microbial DNA and for disinfecting the material to be tested.