Comparison of phenotypic and genotypic profiles among caprine and ovinestrains.

Abstract

() is considered to be one of the most important mycoplasmas causing respiratory disease in small ruminants. Most epidemiologic and characterisation studies have been conducted on strains collected from sheep. Information on the presence and characteristics ofin healthy and pneumonic goats is limited. Phenotypic or genotypic differences between sheep and goat isolates have never been studied. The objective of our study was to characterise and compare the similarities and differences between caprine and ovinestrains isolated from affected and asymptomatic animals in order to elucidate phenotypic and genotypic variability. Four different techniques were used on a set of 23isolates. These included SDS-PAGE, Western blotting, random amplified polymorphic DNA and the heat shock protein 70 gene sequence-based method. A high degree of phenotypic and genotypic heterogeneity amongstrains was demonstrated in this study. Our results demonstrated differences between goat and sheep strains, revealing not only a link between strains and host ruminant species, but by geographical origin as well. However, the finding of immunodominant antigens of molecular masses 36, 38, 40 and 70 kDa (±3 kDa) inisolates from sheep and goats foretells their potential use in the development of serological diagnostic tests and vaccines.