EXOone Mycoplasma bovis

Description

Mycoplasma bovis is the main etiological agent of bovine pneumonia and the most important and pathogenic bovine Mycoplasma in Europe. The infections of cattle are generally chronic or persistent in affected herds, mainly in milk, and the level of shedding of the organism can reflect the state of ongoing infection. Mycoplasmal mastitis is highly contagious and results in a severe milk production drop in affected cows. Cattle diagnosed with mycoplasmal mastitis do not respond well to traditional treatment and control methods, and cull rates of infected cows are often high.

The relative difficulty to isolate M. bovis and the cross-reactions observed in some serological diagnosis methods have focused the attention on real time PCR as improved diagnosis tool for the identification of this pathogen.