primate assay data sheet
Chlamydophila (formerly
Chlamydia) pneumoniae
Test code:
B0003 - Qualitative detection of
Chlamydia pneumoniae by polymerase chain reaction.
Three Chlamydia
species can cause pneumonia:
Chlamydia
pneumoniae, Chlamydia
psittaci, and
Chlamydia trachomatis. All are small, gram-negative,
obligate intracellular bacteria.
In humans,
infection with
C. pneumoniae can
cause mild pneumonia or bronchitis in adolescents and young
adults. Older adults may experience more severe disease and
repeated infections. Recent research has shown
that C. pneumoniae can
infect other animals besides humans (Pospisil and Canderle,
2004). C. pneumoniae has been isolated from
horses, koalas affected by ocular and genital infections,
Australian and African frogs, from a Tanzanian chameleon,
a green sea turtle in the Cayman Islands, an iguana, puff adders
and a Burmese python. All of the
infected animals had developed symptoms similar to those of
infected
humans
Culture detection of C.
pneumonia is difficult because it is an intracellular
bacterium. However, PCR is a highly specific and sensitive
detection method, and is often preferred for clinical diagnosis
of this organism.
Utilities:
-
Help confirm the disease causing agent
-
Shorten the time required to confirm a clinical
diagnosis of C.
pneumoniae infection.
-
Help ensure that animal populations are free of
C. pneumoniae
-
Early prevention of spread of
C. pneumoniae
-
Minimize personnel exposure to
C. pneumoniae
-
Safety monitoring of biological products that derive
from susceptible animals
References:
Pospisil, L. and Canderle, J. (2004)
Chlamydia (Chlamydophila)
pneumoniae in animals: a review.
Vet. Med. – Czech, 49: 129–134
Specimen requirements:
Respiratory
swab, or 0.2 ml whole
blood in EDTA (purple top) tube, or 0.2 ml
serum, or 0.2 ml sputum, or 0.2 ml fresh, frozen or fixed tissue, or bronchial lavage.
Contact Zoologix if advice is needed to determine an appropriate specimen type for a specific diagnostic application. For specimen types not listed here, please contact Zoologix to confirm specimen acceptability and shipping instructions.
For all
specimen types, if there will be a delay in shipping, or during
very warm weather, refrigerate specimens until shipped and ship
with a cold pack unless more stringent shipping requirements are
specified. Frozen specimens should be shipped so as to remain
frozen in transit. See shipping
instructions for more information.
Turnaround time:
2 business days
Methodology:
Qualitative PCR
Normal range:
Nondetected