¹Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Kafkas University, TR-36100 Kars - TURKEY
²Faculty of Health Sciences, Kafkas University, TR-36100 Kars - TURKEY DOI : 10.9775/kvfd.2018.21654 Campylobacteriosis is a contagious and zoonotic infection characterized by abortion and infertility in cattle and sheep. The objective of this study was to investigate Campylobacter spp. cause to abortion in sheep herds in Kars province. For this purpose, a total of 350 vaginal swab samples obtained from sheep with abortion were examined by cultural and molecular methods. Swab samples were inoculated on Preston Campylobacter Selective Agar for isolation of Campylobacter species. Following the incubation, suspected colonies were subjected to Gram staining, mobility, oxidase and catalase tests for identification. Multiplex PCR (m-PCR) was used for the identification of Campylobacter isolates at species level. Campylobacter spp. was isolated in 8 (2.28%) of the 350 vaginal swab samples examined. Of 5 isolates were identified as Campylobacter jejuni and 3 were C. coli by m-PCR. According to the data obtained from this study, it was revealed that Campylobacter species should be taken into consideration in the abortion cases of sheep in this region. Considering the risk of this infectio Keywords : Thermophilic Campylobacter spp., Sheep, Vaginal swab, PCR