Determination of Contagious Agalactia in Sheep and Goats and Investigation of Antibiotic Susceptibility of Mycoplasma spp. Positive Isolates

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is one of the most important issues encountered globally in managing infectious diseases and is a potential problem in the treatment of Mycoplasma infections. The aims of this study were to: determine carrier rates in sick and healthy herds of sheep and goats; determine the presence in herds of carrier animals that were clinically asymptomatic for contagious agalactia and use antibiogram tests to investigate the susceptibility to antibiotics of Mycoplasma spp. positive isolates derived from sheep and goat ear swabs. The presence of contagious agalactia was diagnosed by analyzing ear swabs (n = 300, bacterial method, Mycoplasma spp.) and blood serum samples (n = 300, serological method [ELISA], Mycoplasma agalactiae) taken from sheep and goat herds located in Elazýð and Malatya provinces in eastern Turkey. The ELISA tests revealed seropositivity in 10 (3.33%) of 300 samples. In order to determine the most effective antibiotic for disease treatment, antibiogram testing was performed on 87 (29%) positive isolates that had been isolated from swab cultures. We determined tulathromycin (MIC 16 µg/mL) and tiamulin (MIC 16 µg/mL) to be the most effective antibiotics, whereas disease agents were resistant to trimethoprim/sulfamethoxazole and neomycin.