Investigation of severe coughing and ill thrift in adult hill sheep associated with Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae

Abstract

Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae has long been associated with respiratory disease in young sheep and goats. Here, the authors present evidence that it may be a cause of a coughing syndrome and ill thrift in young and, unusually, older Swaledale ewes on a hill farm in northern England. M. ovipneumoniae was detected in nasal swabs of a majority of affected lambs and ewes, many of which were also seropositive. Postmortem examination of a severely affected seropositive ewe revealed gross and histopathological lesions suggestive of mycoplasma infection, from which M. ovipneumoniae was isolated as well as secondary bacterial pathogens.

Isolation and Characterization of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae Infecting Goats with Pneumonia in Anhui Province, China

“…Oxytetracycline and macrolide antibiotics can alleviate clinical symptoms, but fail to eradicate the infection [56]. Notably, fluoroquinolones, tetracyclines, and macrolides have demonstrated efficacy in vitro to treat Mycoplasma pneumoniae [57]. Considering the limited annotation of virulence factors for M. ovipneumoniae from previous studies, future research should employ transcriptomic and metabolomic methods to accurately characterize unknown virulence genes, determine their prevalence, and elucidate their mechanisms of action to develop an optimal treatment strategy.…”