الفهرس 
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Abstract
Strangles is a highly infectious, worldwide disease that affects the upper respiratory tract of equine caused by S. equi. Rapid identification of the causative agents is critical to initiate early targeted antibiotic therapy and minimize death and economic losses in animals. The present study was designed for typing S. equi strains causing strangles in Arabian horses by sequencing SeM gene.
Overall, out of 465 clinically examined Arabian horses during the period from November 2015 to January 2019, 100 horses (21.50%) showed clinical signs of strangles including fever (39.5 to 41.5oC), anorexia, serous nasal discharge that later becomes mucopurulent and even purulent (yellowish) discharge from the nostrils and enlarged submaxillary, retropharyngeal and parotid lymph nodes.
Horses < 1 year of age have higher chances of developing strangles than older horses. Age, seasonality and strangles being diagnosed in the previous year have significant association with the occurrence of strangles in the examined Arabian horse population (P values for chi-square test are significant). Moreover, by the calculation of odds ratio, it was found that that chance that horses develop strangles is 3.1 times higher if the strangles was diagnosed in the station during the previous year than if it is not.
By bacteriological culture a total of 95 clinical samples (95 %) were positive for Streptococcus species. According to the biochemical identification, S. equi (n=86), S. zooepidemicus (6) and S. equisimilis (3) were identified.
To confirm the results of phenotypic identification, direct sample PCR was performed using primers targeting16S rRNA gene of Streptococcus species. Subsequently, SeM gene of S. equi was amplified yielding 541 bp amplicons.