Characterization of anaerobic microbiota of the gingival sulcus of cattle

• Grant number: 15/00058-4
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2015
• End date: April 30, 2016
• Field of knowledge: Agronomical Sciences - Veterinary Medicine - Preventive Veterinary Medicine
• Principal Investigator: Iveraldo dos Santos Dutra
• Grantee: Júlia Rebecca Saraiva
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina Veterinária (FMVA). Universidade Estadual Paulista (UNESP). Campus de Araçatuba. Araçatuba , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Bovine periodontitis ("cara inchada") is a purulent and progressive infection that begins between deciduous premolars teeth of the jaw of calves. Of great economic and sanitary impact in the 1960s and 1970s, associated to the formation of pastures in extensive areas of the Southeast and Midwest regions of the country, nowadays the disease occurs after retirement of grazing or feeding of cattle with fodder grown in previously endemic areas. Periodontitis afflicts up to 25 to 60% of the animals, which mostly shows no facial convexity ("cara inchada"), a fact that complicates the identification of the disease that leads to progressive weight loss of the animals, loss of teeth, stunted growth, diarrhea and death by starvation when they remain in endemic pastures. The clinical, pathological, bacteriological, epidemiological, treatment and control evidences observed the primary involvement of periodontopathogenic anaerobic microbiota, predominantly Gram-negative, in the pathogenesis of the disease. Preliminarily characterized in the 1980s as belonging to the genus Bacteroides (pigmented or not of black), Fusobacterium and Actinomyces (Gram-positive), these bacteria produce enzymes and toxins with histolytic and endotoxic capacity with primary and secondary potencial in the pathogenesis of periodontal lesions, even similar to what occurs in different animal species and man. This study aims to identify the main anaerobic bacteria isolated from bovine periodontal lesions by polymerase chain reaction, using primers of the main periodontopathogenic bacteria. However, little is known about the composition of the microflora of healthy periodontal animals. This study aims to identify the main anaerobic bacteria present in the gingival sulcus of animals considered by clinical examination periodontally healthy and from unaffected areas, by polymerase chain reaction and by using primers of the main bacteria recognized as periodontopathogenic.