Prevalence of mycoplasma species by polymerase chain reaction (PCR): Directly from the nasal swab samples of goats

The present study highlights the prevalence of mycoplasma species using pcr for mycoplasma mycoides cluster,mycoplasma mycoides sub-cluster,mycoplasma capricolum subspecies capripneumoniae (mccp),and mycoplasma putrefaciens (mp) in 1920 nasal swab (dna) samples of goats from five districts of balochistan. overall,9.2% (n=177) prevalence of mycoplasma species was observed. districtwise prevalence of mycoplasma species indicated statistically significant difference (x 2 =15.78,df = 4,p< 0.0033) with the highest prevalence of 14.1% in goats from loralai district followed by 9.4% (pishin),8.3% (zhob) and 8.1% (killa saifullah),while the lowest prevalence of 6.3% was noted in quetta district. of the total 177 (9.2%) nasal swab samples positive for mycoplasma species,the highest prevalence of 69.5% (n=123) was found for mmc followed by 19.2% (n=34) for mcc,whereas the lowest prevalence of 11.3% (n=20) was observed for mp organisms (x 2=266.7,df=3,p<0.0001 indicated statistically highly significant difference). none of the dna sample was found positive for mccp organisms in specific pcr. the pcr result coupled with restriction fragment length polymorphism (rflp) profile specifically indicated the presence of mmc in goats in the studied districts of balochistan. the use of pcr is found promising in the rapid detection of mycoplasma species in the dna extracted directly from the nasal swab samples of goats in balochistan,pakistan.