The use of fimA gene primers for detection of Salmonella spp. isolated from children with diarrhea

Abstract

A total of 480 fecal samples were collected from children (less than 3 years old) , of both sexes suffering from diarrhea who admitted to The Teaching Hospital of Maternity and Pediatrics in Al- Diwaniya governorate. Salmonella spp. were isolated and identified using bacterial culturing on selective media, in addition to, biochemical and Mini API 20E. Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to detect fimA gene encoding for biosynthesis of fimA of Salmonella spp.   The results revealed that the rate of Salmonella isolates in fecal samples of patients were (38/480) 7.9% using cultural and MiniAPI20 E, when the PCR technique was used to detect the presence of fimA gene,34Salmonella isolates belong to Salmonellaspp. appeared to contain this gene since DNA amplification showed onedistinct band (size 85 bp) when electrophorised on agarose gel. The results of this study revealed that the PCR technique had a high specifity (100%) in detection of Salmonella spp. in comparison to cultural and biochemical and Mini API20E tests.