Detection of Hafnia alvei in Urine Specimens by Real- time Polymerase Chain Reaction Technique

Abstract

This study was carried out in the period from May 2007- March 2008 to detect the presence of Hafnia alvei in patients suffering from urinary tract infection. Forty six urine specimens were collected from patients attended Khartoum Teaching Hospital, Ibrahim Malik Teaching Hospital and Omdurman Teaching Hospital. Bacterial DNA was extracted from each urine specimen using Phenol-Choloroform technique. Real time PCR technique was adopted to detect the presence of Hafnia alvei. The results revealed that only one (2.1%) specimen was positive and the rest forty five (97.8%) were negative. The study concluded that real time PCR technique facilitates detection of Hafnia alvei in urine without bacteriological culture.