Incidence and Significance of Mycoplasmas in Sick Cats

Abstract

A series of 407 strains of mycoplasmas was isolated from 236 sick cats between 1969 and 1972. Most of them were identified as Mycoplasma felis, M. gateae, Acholeplasma laidlawii and M. arginini. There were also 34 unidentified strains which were not inhibited by specific antisera to the above types. The incidence to M. felis was 29.7% in sick cats and 38.0% in dead/sacrificed cats. The incidence of M. arginini was 16.5% in sick cats and 9.2% in dead/sacrificed cats. The highest percentage of recovery was for M. gateae which was 46.2% in sick cats and 43.1% in dead/sacrificed cats. The incidence of A. laidlawii was 0.5% in sick cats only. None was isolated from dead/sacrificed cats. In clinically normal cats, the incidences were 4.4%, 6.7%, 62.2% and 22.2% for M. felis, M. arginini, M. gateae and A. laidlawii respectively. High levels of haemagglutination-inhibition antibodies against M. felis were found in most of the sera from sick cats. There were several sera which had complement-fixing and metabolic-inhibition antibodies against M. felis. Comparatively few sera had antibodies against M. arginini, M. gateae or A. laidlawii as tested by complement fixation, haemagglutination-inhibition and metabolic-inhibition tests.