Diagnostic and epidemiological nucleic acid probe for bovine leptospirosis

摘要

A distinctive repetitive genomic element of Leptospira interrogans serovar hardjo-type hardjo-bovis permits distinguishing this pathogen type from other commonly found leptospires in North American cattle using single-stranded RNA probes. Plasmids carrying DNA templates for useful probes have been deposited as NRRL Accession Nos. B-18462, B- 18463, and B- 18464. The probes are sufficiently sensitive to detect hardjo-bovis in as few as 110.sup.2 cells/ml. The diagnostic capabilities of the probes render them useful not only as herd management tools, but also in epidemiology studies designed to determine the origin and migration of L. interrogans isolates.