Rafidain Journal of Science

Four isolates of Erwinia amylovora were isolated during (May, 2016) from different pear orchards of Erbil Governorate in Kurdistan/Iraq. Typical symptoms of fire blight such as shepherd crock and bacterial exudates were observed in pear trees, The bacteria morphologically similar to E. amylovora were isolated and characterized morphologically using selective media Crosse and Goodman, Biochemically using the API 20E and same biochemical tests (oxidase, catalase and indole) were also used for identification, and the result of API 20E kit (Biomérieux, France), demonstrated that the bacterium belongs to E. amylovora. Also all isolates were oxidase and indole negative, catalase positive and produced craters on the surface of colonies which permitted positive identification of the pathogen. A pathogenicity tests were positive on young pear shoots and immature fruits. PCR amplification was applied to identify a specific region of chromosomal pEA71, Results showed positive reaction to this specific primer.The first study conducted on pear fire blight caused by E. amylovora in ErbilProvince.

A total of 220 samples were collected from different sources of infection from the patients of Tikrit Hospital and Samarra Teaching Hospital who showed symptoms of infection, both sexes and different age groups for the period from April 2017 to January 2018. The results of the isolating showed that the number of samples that showed positive bacterial growth on the used media was 135 samples (61.4%),while 85 samples (38.6%) of total samples did not produce significant bacterial growth, The common bacteria isolates in our study were the highest number of isolates with a total of 111 samples and 82.2%, the uncommon bacterial isolates showed in 24 growth samples (17.8%). The results showed that Morganella morganii had the highest percentage of isolates by 3 isolates (12.5%), followed by Aerococcus urinae, Pseudomonas stutzeri, Micrococcus luteus with isolates (8.2%), for other species, only one isolate (4.2%) was obtained, All isolates showed an absolute sensitivity of 100% for Imipenem and 100% absolute resistance to 10 antibiotics,the results showed that both bacteria Kocuria kristinae, O. anthropi, have three virulence factors, Protease, Urease, β-lactamase, While the bacterial species Sphingomonas paucimobilis, Gemella sanguinis, Aerococcus urinae, Pseudomonas stutzeri, Pseudomonas fluorescens, gave a positive test result for the production of β-lactamase, Hemolysin, while Morganella morganii, Alloiococcus Otitis have two factor, Urease, Β-lactamase. As for the isolates Pantoea agglomerans, Kocuria rosea has shown its ability to produce only one type of β-lactamase β-lactamase.