Detection of the reemerging agent Burkholderia mallei in a recent outbreak of glanders in the United Arab Emirates by a newly developed fliP-based polymerase chain reaction assay.

The research centers around developing a Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) test for accurately identifying the Burkholderia mallei bacterium, responsible for glanders in horses, which had shown up during an outbreak in the United Arab Emirates. The newly created PCR assay specifically targets the flagellin P genomic region of the bacterium, ensuring reliable detection in both pure cultures and clinical samples.

Development of the PCR Assay

• The researchers developed a PCR assay that specifically targets the fliP-IS407A genomic region in Burkholderia mallei. This was made possible by using primers, which are short fragments of DNA and crucial for DNA amplification, derived from the known sequence of the fliP-IS407A of a B. mallei strain held in the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC).
• This assay was designed to amplify a specific 989-bp fragment from every strain of B. mallei, thus making it specific to this bacterium.
• Researchers confirmed the specificity of this assay by testing other closely related organisms; these organisms did not show any positive results, therefore ensuring that the test was particular for B. mallei.

Assay Efficiency and Sensitivity

• The efficiency of the PCR assay was highlighted by its ability to detect as low as 10fg (femtograms) of purified DNA from the B. mallei strain.
• This sensitivity was further confirmed when the researchers successfully applied the PCR assay to various clinical samples taken from horses afflicted with a generalized B. mallei infection.

Conclusion and Potential Implications

• Given the success of the PCR assay in the lab and with clinical samples, it presents a quick and direct approach to detecting B. mallei in clinical samples.
• This could prove invaluable for diagnosing glanders in horses more quickly and accurately and could potentially curtail future outbreaks of the disease.