Differentiation of Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides from certain closely related caprine mycoplasmas by mycoplasmaemia and cross-protection tests in mice.

In recent years, mycoplasma taxonomists have found that numerous mycoplasma strains from goats are serologically indistinguishable from Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides, the causative agent of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP), by routinely used tests, e.g. the metabolism- and growth-inhibition tests. As a result, such organisms are now openly referred to as M. mycoides subsp. mycoides. Seven of these so-called M. mycoides subsp. mycoides strains from goats were compared with two strains of M. mycoides subsp. mycoides from CBPP, and with one strain of M. mycoides subsp. capri, by means of two in-vivo tests, namely, (1) a test of the ability of each strain, injected intraperitoneally into mice, to produce mycoplasmaemia, and (2) a cross-protection test in mice. Of the seven strains, only one ('O goat') was indistinguishable from genuine M. mycoides subsp. mycoides; it also had small colonies resembling those of genuine M. mycoides subsp. mycoides. The other six were easily distinguished from genuine M. mycoides subsp. mycoides, and they produced large colonies. These six strains and others like them should no longer be given a name that fails to distinguish them from the causative agent of CBPP. Cross-protection tests showed that the seven goat strains referred to above differed from M. mycoides subsp. capri.