Mycoplasma bovis

Silent and Deadly

Roger Ayling, PhD, FSB

Mycoplasma bovis: Silent and Deadly – The Enemy

“If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred

battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also

suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in

every battle.” ― Sun Tzu, The Art of War

Mycoplasma species

• The Organisms

• The Diseases

• In Cattle

• Diagnosis

• Mycoplasma bovis, prevalence, defences, molecular types

• Control - antimicrobials

Mycoplasma species

The simplest forms of life

• Smallest organisms that are capable

of self-replication

• Bacteria

• Scientists use Mycoplasmas to

understand:

“The Minimal Cell” - What is required

for life.

Create life ????

Mycoplasma (class Mollicutes)

The Organism

More than 125 named Mycoplasma species.

Generally host-specific, few opportunist zoonoses.

Small: cell = 300-800nm; genomes = 0.58-1.38Mbp

Nutritionally fastidious, dependent on host.

TCA cycle is absent, can not synthesise own amino acids,

nucleotides or fatty acids.

Lack a cell wall.

Mycoplasma (class Mollicutes)

Genome sequencing

Year genes bases

M. genitalium 1995 483 5.6 X 105 bp

M. pneumoniae 1990-1996 688

Ureaplasma 1998 613

M. pulmonis 2001 782

M. penetrans 2002 1038

M. gallisepticum 2003 742

M. mycoides SC 2004 985

M. hyopneumoniae 2004 692

M. mobile 2004 635

M. synoviae 2005 687

M. capricolum 2005 862

M. agalactiae 2007 751

M. bovis 2008 868 1.0 X 106 bp

Haemophilus influenzae 1995 1703

E. coli 1997 4000

Man 2003 ~25,000 3.3 X109 bp

Bovine mycoplasmas

M. mycoides subsp. mycoides (small colony type) -causes contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP)

Respiratory

Mastitis

Eye Infections

Joint

Reproductive

Otitis / Meningitis

Anaemia, Oedema

Other

M. bovis, M. dispar, M. leachii (bovine group 7), (M.

alkalescens, M. bovirhinis, M. bovigenitalium, M. canis,

Ureaplasma diversum).

M. bovis, M. alkalescens, M. canadense, M. californicum M.

(Eperythrozoon) wenyonii.

M. bovis, M. bovoculi, (M. bovigenitalium, M. bovirhinis,

Acholeplasma spp.).

M. bovis, M. wenyonii.

M. bovis, M. bovigenitalium, M. wenyonii, Ureaplasma

diversum, Ureaplasma urealyticum.

M. bovis.

M. wenyonii.

M. alvi, M. arginini, M. capricolum subsp. capricolum, M.

mycoides LC/capri, M. verecundum.

Contagious Bovine

Pleuropneumonia (CBPP)

Former OIE List A disease

• CBPP disease was possibly described as early

as 4th Century

• CBPP eliminated from USA in 1892; UK in 1898

and Mainland Europe in 1999.

• The organism Mycoplasma mycoides subsp.

mycoides (small colony type) first grown in

1898 (Nocard and Roux).

Pathological Diagnosis -

CBPP

Sequestra

(subacute/

chronic lesion)

Thickening of

interlobular septa

giving ‘marbled’

appearance

(acute lesion)

Clinical / Pathological Diagnosis -

Mycoplasma bovis

Calf pneumonia

Arthritis

Mastitis

Meningitis/head tilt

Infectious keratoconjunctivitis

Bovine Lungs

Mycoplasma bovis

Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides

(small colony type)

Lung usually unilaterally affected

Contagious bovine pleuropneumonia

(CBPP) – Exotic to Europe

Bovine Respiratory Disease

(BRD)

Viral: IBR: Infectious bovine rhinotracheitus

RSV: Respiratory syncitial virus

PI3: Parainfluenza 3

BVD: Bovine viral diarrhoea

Bacterial: Mannheimia haemolytica

Pasteurella multocida

Histophilus somni

Mycoplasma bovis

Other Mycoplasma species