Assessment of Campylobacter fetus subsp. venerealis molecular diagnosis using clinical samples of bulls.

Overall, this study reveals that PCR assays solely directed to a subspecies target originate a high rate of false positive results, due to the presence of parA and ISCfe1 homologous sequences in other bacterial species, namely of the genus Campylobacter. Although the specificity of these methods may be higher if applied to bulls from herds with clinical features of BGC or in other geographical regions, current PCR diagnosis should couple subspecies and species targets, and further research must be envisaged to identify Cfv specific molecular targets.