Investigation of Mycoplasma agalactiae in sheep in Kurdistan province by PCR

Contagious agalactia (ca) is a serious disease syndrome of sheep and goats that is characterized bymastitis, arthritis, keratoconjunctivitis and, occasionally, abortion. mycoplasma (m.) agalactiae is the maincause of the disease in sheep and goats. the aim of the present study was to detect m. agalactiae inconjunctival, synovial fluid, nasal, ear and milk samples in sheep herds with or without ca sign inkurdistan province. one hundred and seventy three samples analyzed were taken from sheep herds rearedin a ca endemic area. of the samples tested, 130 were positive by pcr for mycoplasma spp. and of these,19 showed a positive result for m. agalactiae. m. agalactiae was detected in conjunctival (7/59), synovialfluid (1/8) and milk (11/21) samples. ear and nasal swap samples were free of m. agalactiae. the results of60 samples in sheep without signs of ca syndrome showed that mycoplasma spp. and m. agalactiae weredetected in 25 and 6 samples, respectively. our findings indicate that in kurdistan province; m. agalactiaewas not the main etiological agents of the ca syndrome. also, this species can be isolated from animalswithout clinical signs of disease. our results suggested that milk secretion is suitable for pcr detection ofm. agalactiae.