Contagious Caprine Pleuropneumonia: New Aspects of an Old Disease

Abstract

Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP), caused by Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae, is a serious OIE-listed disease affecting goats in the Middle East, north and east Africa and Asia. Mortality and morbidity rates can be as high as 60% and 90%, respectively, when the disease first enters a territory, invariably through carrier animals. Recent detections of CCPP in Pakistan and Tajikistan are probably the result of improved diagnosis as the disease has been suspected there for many years, while those in Thrace in 2003 and Mauritius in 2009 represent new outbreaks. CCPP was thought to be highly host specific until recent outbreaks in wildlife species including gazelles and gerenuks show that the causative mycoplasma has broader specificity. Diagnosis was hampered by the fastidiousness of the causative mycoplasma but molecular-based tests like PCR have greatly improved detection. Rapid latex agglutination tests that can be performed at the penside are also available for antibody detection. Clinically affected animals respond to a range of antibiotics although it is unlikely that this results in complete elimination of the mycoplasma. Vaccines consisting of saponized organisms have been shown to be protective but the quality and efficacy may be variable.

Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia and its current picture in Pakistan: a review

“…Confirmatory diagnosis is based on the isolation of Mccp from clinical samples of lung (Nicholas and Churchward 2012). The ideal sample for Mccp isolation is pleural fluid obtained from a recently slaughtered or live infected goat .…”

“…Unlike the true CCPP caused by Mccp, other Mycoplasma infections can spread beyond the thoracic cavity (OIE 2008). In the laboratory, the major problem in Mccp isolation is its slow growth and frequent contamination of the culture by other Mycoplasmas Nicholas and Churchward 2012). Under an ordinary microscope, the organism has a branching, filamentous morphology in exudates, impression smears or tissue sections, while other caprine Mycoplasmas usually appear as short filamentous organisms (OIE 2009).…”

“…It is a devastating disease of goats (Bascunana et al 1994) included in the list of notifiable diseases of the Office International des Epizooties (OIE) (MansoSilvan et al 2011). CCPP is a major threat to the goat farming industry in developing countries (Lorenzon et al 2002) and is pandemic in Africa, the Middle East and Asia Nicholas and Churchward 2012). Previously, only 20 countries have reported the isolation of the Mccp organism due to scarcity of laboratory expertise (Nicholas 2002a) but it has now been isolated in China (Chu et al 2011), Mauritius (Srivastava et al 2010), and Tajikistan (FAO 2012), by applying advanced "microorganism-detecting protocols" such as PCR.…”

Incidence of respiratory infections and the roles of husbandry practice on the productivity of small ruminants in Northern Cameroon

“…The hide and skin of these animals are used in the local instrument and contribute to foreign exchange earnings [5,6]. One of the major constraints to increase small ruminants production in Africa has been the occurrence of infectious diseases and poor management practiced in most parts of the continent [7][8][9][10][11]. Among such diseases is the occurrence of Pasteurellosis and Mycoplasmosis [3,8,[12][13][14][15].…”

Screening of the Cervidae family in Poland for Mycoplasma species

“…capripneumoniae (Mccp) (15). CCPP has also been found in wild small ruminants such as wild goat (Capra aegagrus), Nubian ibex (Capra ibex nubiana), Larisstan mouflon (Ovis orientalis laristanica), Gerenuk (Litocranius walleri), and Gazelles, resulting in some cases in animal mortality (1,13). With CCPP being present in the Thrace region of Turkey (17), there is a risk that wildlife could spread the disease across Europe.…”