Identification of bovine respiratory disease complex associated bacteria using a 16S rRNA gene amplicon sequencing assay

Bacteria, many of which are normal flora of the bovine upper respiratory tract, can cause and exacerbate virus or stess induced bovine respiratory disease complex (BRDC). The objective of this study was to develop a single universal assay, based on high throughput phylogenetic (16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) gene) PCR amplicon sequencing, with potential to accurately identify and differentiate bacteria in post-mortem tissue samples harvested from fatal BRDC cases.