To study the similarity among Bordetella avium isolates in China, antigens and diagnostic antiserum of 22 B. avium isolates were prepared for serotyping, and a set of 20 commercially available primers was screened out to identify suitable primers for random amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprinting (RAPD) analysis in this study. Twenty-two B. avium isolates were divided into two serovars (A and B) based on their reaction in the plate-agglutination test. Four primers R1, R2, R4 and R10 resulted in informative fingerprints and were used to evaluate the B. avium isolates. Based on their RAPD patterns, a dendrogram allowed the separation of the B. avium isolates into six genetic similarity clusters. However, no direct correlation was observed between serotypes and RAPD typing among the isolates.

Key words: Bordetella avium (B. avium), Plate-agglutination test, RAPD typing, Serotyping