Abstract
Mycoplasmas cause some of the most economically important diseases of sheep and goats, including diseases listed by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) such as contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) and contagious agalactia (CA). Other important mycoplasma diseases include chronic respiratory and arthritic syndrome (CRAS) and atypical pneumonia, both present on all continents where small ruminants are farmed. Unfortunately, owing to a lack of investment, most commercial vaccines for these diseases are of poor quality, being mostly composed of killed bacteriocins of dubious or unknown efficacy. Several Mediterranean laboratories produce autogenous vaccines, but these can only be used on farms where outbreaks have been officially declared, and consequently have limited impact on disease nationally. Effective live vaccines are available, but their use is often restricted because of safety concerns. With the necessary safeguards in place, we argue for their greater use. This review examines reported vaccines for mycoplasma diseases of small ruminants and attempts to identify new candidate antigens that may enable the development of improved products. Vaccines for CCPP are covered elsewhere.
Highlights
Some of the most economically important diseases of sheep and goats are caused by mycoplasmas, small wall-less bacteria of the class Mollicutes
Mycoplasmas cause some of the most economically important diseases of sheep and goats, including diseases listed by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE) such as contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) and contagious agalactia (CA)
This review examines reported vaccines for mycoplasma diseases of small ruminants and attempts to identify new candidate antigens that may enable the development of improved products
Summary
Some of the most economically important diseases of sheep and goats are caused by mycoplasmas, small wall-less bacteria of the class Mollicutes These include diseases listed by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), such as contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) and contagious agalactia (CA), as well as chronic respiratory and arthritic syndrome (CRAS) and atypical pneumonia, both present on all continents where small ruminants are farmed (Table 1). The development of vaccines is a risky venture for commercial companies, which require large upfront expenditure with no certainty of uptake, by subsistence farmers lacking the ability to pay for them This lack of funding for effective vaccines is reflected in the poor quality of existing products available for the main mycoplasma diseases: nearly. Vaccines for CCPP have recently been thoroughly reviewed [3,4], and so will not been included here
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