Molecular detection of bovine hemotrophic mycoplasmas in Mexico

Abstract

The presence of hemoplasmas Candidatus Mycoplasma haemobos and Mycoplasma wenyonii that infect bovine cattle has been reported during the last years. Hemoplasmas may affect animal health either alone or in coinfections with other microorganisms, resulting in anemia and other clinical signs. In Mexico, only Ca. M. haemobos has been detected in cattle; in this work, we report for the first time in our country the presence of M. wenyonii in animals from different geographical sources amd we detected both hemoplasmas by duplex PCR. Also, by single end-point PCR, we found Ca. M. haemobos and M. wenyonii in 96% and 96.29% of the blood samples, respectively. Both hemoplasmas were detected in 50% of the samples analyzed, which suggest that the duplex PCR developed in this work might improve if some modifications are performed. This molecular detection method will provide valuable information to know the health condition of national cattle to prevent pathogen dispersion.