Molecular detection of Haemophilus parasuis serotypes 4, 5 or 12 and 13 in Peninsular Malaysia

Although the economic importance of Haemophilus parasuis infection causing Glasser's disease is prevalent throughout pig farms in Peninsular Malaysia, there is a dearth of knowledge on its actual nature. In this study, a multiplex PCR was performed to screen for three major predominant virulent strains of H. parasuis, which are serotypes 4, 5 or 12 and 13. A total of 175 tissues or bodily fluid samples of various parts were collected from diseased animals from October, 2016 to February, 2018; with total of 62.9% positive detection of H. parasuis. The highest detection was found to be in the pericardial sac fibrin (90.9%) followed by pleural fibrin, lung, pleural fluid, tonsil, pericardial sac, peritoneal fluid, abdominal fibrin, joint fluid, brain and pericardium. Serotype 13 was the highest (40/110) followed by serotype 4(37/110), serotype 5(31/110) and 12 samples were nontypable (12/110). The presence of untypable serotype also drives to further identification of other serotypes in Malaysia.