Vet World Vol.10 November-2017 Article-16
Research Article
Veterinary World, 10(11): 1378-1382
https://doi.org/10.14202/vetworld.2017.1378-1382
Clinical, pathological, and molecular investigation of Mycoplasma pulmonis-induced murine respiratory mycoplasmosis in a rat (Rattus norvegicus) colony
2. Department of Animal House, Institute of Life Sciences, Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India.
Background and Aim: Mycoplasma pulmonis (MP) remains potentially important rodent pathogen causing murine respiratory mycoplasmosis (MRM) which may go undiagnosed due to its asymptomatic nature. In the present study, we carried out clinical, pathological, and molecular investigations of MP-induced MRM in a rat colony.
Materials and Methods: Two female Wistar rats were observed to be diseased in animal facility of NISER, Bhubaneswar, and were kept in isolation for further investigation. Both the animals were found to be positive for MP after serological and molecular tests. Thereafter, whole rat colony comprising of 36 animals was segregated based on clinical symptoms and further sampled for histopathological, serological, and molecular investigations. Tracheal washing and infected lung tissue were collected during necropsy examination for DNA extraction. Molecular diagnosis was done by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay using species-specific primers.
Results: Classical symptoms of MP-associated respiratory tract infection were observed in only 2 of 36 infected animals, and most of the animals were found asymptomatic to the disease; however, all the animals were found to be carrier after necropsy and PCR assay. Gross and histopathological finding suggested severe congestion of the lungs along with suppurative and necrotizing pneumonia. The disease is confirmed by molecular diagnosis using species-specific primers in PCR assay.
Conclusion: MRM may go undiagnosed due to asymptomatic nature. Detailed study of clinical symptoms, pathology, serology, and PCR-based molecular approach may aid in health monitoring and detection of MRM in a rodent colony reared for experimental purpose. Keywords: murine respiratory mycoplasmosis, Mycoplasma pulmonis, polymerase chain reaction, rat colony.
Keywords: murine respiratory mycoplasmosis, Mycoplasma pulmonis, polymerase chain reaction, rat colony.
How to cite this article: Chawla S, Jena S, Venkatsan B, Mahara K, Sahu N (2017) Clinical, pathological, and molecular investigation of Mycoplasma pulmonis-induced murine respiratory mycoplasmosis in a rat (Rattus norvegicus) colony, Veterinary World, 10(11): 1378-1382.
Received: 02-06-2017 Accepted: 05-10-2017 Published online: 25-11-2017
Corresponding author: Sarita Jena E-mail: saritails@gmail.com
DOI: 10.14202/vetworld.2017.1378-1382
Copyright: Chawla, et al. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.