title: Experimental infection of chickens with an atypical Mycoplasma gallisepticum strain: comparison of diagnostic methods.
abstract: Fifteen chickens were inoculated with the atypical Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) K703 strain. On different dates post inoculation, tracheal swab samples were collected for mycoplasma culture and blood samples were analysed by slide agglutination test (SA) with commercial or homologous antigen and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) with three different kits. Results showed that MG isolation rate was low on several sampling dates. The SA with commercial antigen did not yield positive results, although birds were positive when tested with homologous antigen. With commercial ELISA kits, the numbers of positive samples remained low. These results illustrate the difficulty of diagnosis of infections with such MG variant strains.
authors.affiliation: Centre National d'Etudes Vétérinaires et Alimentaires, Laboratorie Central de Recherches Avicole et Porcine, Unité de Recherches Mycoplasmologie Bactériologie, Ploufragan, France.
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Kempf
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gesbert
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Guittet
mesh_terms: D000372:Agglutination Tests; D000818:Animals; D002645:Chickens; D004797:Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay; D009174:Mycoplasma / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D009175:Mycoplasma Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000662:veterinary*; D011201:Poultry Diseases; D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic; D013048:Specimen Handling / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary; D014132:Trachea / Q000382:microbiology
chemical_list: D011933:Reagent Kits, Diagnostic