Antibiotic Egg Injection to Eliminate Disease II. Elimination of Mycoplasma meleagridis from a Strain of Turkeys

Abstract

SUMMARY Mycoplasma meleagridis (MM) was eliminated from a male line of a pedigree strain of primary breeder turkeys by preincubation injection of antibiotics into hatching eggs from one generation of infected breeders and raising 18,893 progeny (F-l) in isolation. A combination of tylosin and gentamicin sulfate was injected into the albumen by the bottom-end system of treatment (BEST) method. The organism was sensitive to both antibiotics. No evidence of MM infection was found in surveillance testing on the progenies (F-1 and F-2) at intervals from one day old throughout life. Included were examination of air sacs for lesions, sampling of air sacs, tracheas, and reproductive tissues for mycoplasma isolation, and serologic testing. The temperature-differential method of dipping hatching eggs in the same antibiotics had failed to eliminate MM from two preceding generations of the same strain of breeders.