Abstract
Melioidosis is an emerging infectious disease caused by a free living soil dwelling Gram-negative bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei. The disease is endemic to most parts of Southeast Asia and northern Australia and the organism has been isolated from moist soil and water. In India clinical cases are recently reported from the states of Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Orissa, Assam, West Bengal, Pondicherry and Tripura. This study is aimed to confirm the prevalence of this important bacterial species in soil samples collected from coastal areas of Tamilnadu. Forty five soil samples from five different sites were collected from Parangipettai, Tamilnadu and screened for the presence of B. pseudomallei. The study confirmed 4 isolates as B. pseudomallei with the help of conventional bacteriological methods and molecular methods that include; 16S rDNA sequencing, B. pseudomallei specific PCR, fliC gene RFLP and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry based bacterial identification. This study reveals the prevalence and distribution of B. pseudomallei in the soil environment in coastal areas of southern India and further necessitates studies from other parts of the country. It will also be helpful to understand the distribution of B. pseudomallei and to access its epidemiological importance.
Highlights
IntroductionThe disease is mainly endemic in Southeast Asia and northern Australia with highest number of melioidosis cases reported from Thailand
Melioidosis is caused by soil dwelling Gram-negative bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei and is an emerging infectious disease in India
The disease is mainly endemic in Southeast Asia and northern Australia with highest number of melioidosis cases reported from Thailand
Summary
The disease is mainly endemic in Southeast Asia and northern Australia with highest number of melioidosis cases reported from Thailand. The description of B. thailandensis, a non-virulent but closely related species present in the soil, has made the isolation and characterization of B. pseudomallei from soil very challenging (Brett et al, 1998). This species has similar colony morphology characteristics to B. pseudomallei on solid media and biochemical and molecular techniques are needed to distinguish between them. A review for the global presence and distribution of B. pseudomallei clearly indicates that isolation of this species from soil has not been reported from India, despite its isolation from human cases (Limmathurotsakul et al, 2013). The present study was undertaken to attempt the isolation of B. pseudomallei from the coastal rice cultivating areas of Tamil Nadu, India to confirm the identity of isolates by conventional and molecular methods
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