First Report of Mycoplasma conjunctivae from Wild Caprinae with Infectious Keratoconjunctivitis in the Pyrenees (NE Spain)

Ignasi Marco,Cristina Ballesteros,Santiago Lavín,Gregorio Mentaberre,Edy M Vilei,Daniela F Bischof

doi:10.7589/0090-3558-45.1.238

Ignasi Marco, Cristina Ballesteros + Show 4 more

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https://doi.org/10.7589/0090-3558-45.1.238

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Abstract

Frequent outbreaks of infectious keratoconjunctivitis have been reported in wild Caprinae in Europe. While etiologic studies in the Alps indicate that the main etiologic agent is Mycoplasma conjunctivae, there are few reports from other mountain areas, such as the Pyrenees, where M. conjunctivae has never been reported. In 2006 and 2007, five adult Pyrenean chamois (Rupicapra pyrenaica; two males and three females) and one adult male European mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon) were studied; they exhibited clinical symptoms of infectious keratoconjunctivitis such as blindness, corneal opacity, and ulceration. In three of the five chamois tested, and in the mouflon, Mycoplasma conjunctivae was identified from conjunctival swabs by means of a TaqMan(R) polymerase chain reaction based on the lipoprotein gene lppS. Cluster analysis indicated that the three southern chamois isolates form a cluster that is distinct from the mouflon isolate. This is the first report of M. conjunctivae in Pyrenean chamois, and it supports the hypothesis that M. conjunctivae also could be the main cause of infectious keratoconjunctivitis in areas other than the Alps, such as the Pyrenees.

Highlights

Infectious keratoconjunctivitis is a common ocular infection of domestic sheep and goats, but it occurs frequently in wild Caprinae such as Alpine chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), Alpine ibex (Capra ibex), European mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon), and Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus; Giacometti et al, 2002)
In 1982, Blanco et al identified Chlamydia psittaci from one of two Pyrenean chamois that had clinical symptoms consistent with infectious keratoconjunctivitis and suggested that it could be the single cause of the disease in the Spanish Pyrenees
While infectious keratoconjunctivitis is very common in Alpine chamois and Alpine ibex, it occurs less frequently in mouflon; only two outbreaks have been reported in France from two small populations (Sarrazin et al, 1990; Cugnasse, 1997), and one experimental infection has been performed (Terrier, 1998)

Summary

Introduction

Infectious keratoconjunctivitis is a common ocular infection of domestic sheep and goats, but it occurs frequently in wild Caprinae such as Alpine chamois (Rupicapra rupicapra), Alpine ibex (Capra ibex), European mouflon (Ovis orientalis musimon), and Himalayan tahr (Hemitragus jemlahicus; Giacometti et al, 2002). The most common etiologic agent of the disease in both domestic and wild Caprinae is Mycoplasma conjunctivae (Giacometti et al, 1999; Baker, 2001; Motha et al, 2003; Tschopp et al, 2005; Vilei et al, 2007).

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Conclusion