Clippinger T L, Bennett R A, Johnson C M, Vliet K A, Deem S L, Orós J, Jacobson E R, Schumacher I M, Brown D R, Brown M B
Department of Small Animal Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, University of Florida, Gainesville 32610, USA.
J Zoo Wildl Med. 2000 Sep;31(3):303-14. doi: 10.1638/1042-7260(2000)031[0303:MAMAWA]2.0.CO;2.
Nine of 74 American alligators (Alligator mississippiensis) from a captive Florida herd of 3-4-m-long, 200-350-kg, adult males greater than 30 yr of age died within a 10-day period during 1995. Nonspecific clinical signs included anorexia, lethargy, muscle weakness, paraparesis, bilateral white ocular discharge, and various degrees of periocular, facial, cervical, and limb edema. Pneumonia, pericarditis, and arthritis were found on postmortem evaluation of the spontaneously dead and euthanatized alligators. Rapidly growing mycoplasmas were identified by culture, and mycoplasma nucleotide sequences were identified by polymerase chain reaction testing of fresh lung and synovial fluid from an affected alligator. Culture of banked frozen lung from necropsy specimens and fresh lung and fresh synovial fluid from newly affected alligators confirmed the presence of a new mycoplasma species in seven of eight individuals. Oxytetracycline was administered, but related deaths continued for 6 mo until only 14 of the initial alligators remained. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay to detect antibody was developed, and the organism was transmitted experimentally to naive juvenile alligators, although the source of the organism, Mycoplasma sp. (ATCC 700619), has not been identified. The alligator isolate is a novel species in the mycoplasma family because its nucleotide sequence does not match those of over 75 characterized mycoplasma species. Such factors as population density, animal age, and mycoplasmal virulence likely contributed to the course of disease.
1995年，在佛罗里达州一群圈养的成年雄性美国短吻鳄（密西西比鳄）中，74只年龄超过30岁、体长3 - 4米、体重200 - 350千克的短吻鳄中有9只在10天内死亡。非特异性临床症状包括厌食、嗜睡、肌肉无力、轻瘫、双侧白色眼部分泌物以及不同程度的眼周、面部、颈部和肢体水肿。对自然死亡和安乐死的短吻鳄进行尸检评估时发现了肺炎、心包炎和关节炎。通过培养鉴定出快速生长的支原体，并通过对一只患病短吻鳄的新鲜肺和滑液进行聚合酶链反应检测鉴定出支原体核苷酸序列。对尸检标本的冻存肺以及新发病短吻鳄的新鲜肺和新鲜滑液进行培养，证实8只个体中有7只存在一种新的支原体物种。给予了土霉素，但相关死亡持续了6个月，直到最初的短吻鳄只剩下14只。开发了一种酶联免疫吸附测定法来检测抗体，并且该病原体通过实验传播给了未接触过病原体的幼年短吻鳄，尽管该病原体支原体属（ATCC 700619）的来源尚未确定。这种短吻鳄分离株是支原体家族中的一个新物种，因为其核苷酸序列与75多种已鉴定特征的支原体物种的序列不匹配。种群密度、动物年龄和支原体毒力等因素可能影响了疾病的发展过程。
