investigating the contamination of bovine aborted fetuses referred to mashhad veterinary faculty hospital with pathogenic mycoplasma species

Abortion is one of the most important causes of economic loss in animal husbandry and herds. regarding abortion, infectious agents are critical at the herd level, and many pathogens have been reported to cause it. the current study aims to investigate the contamination of bovine aborted fetuses referred to mashhad veterinary faculty hospital, iran, with pathogenic mycoplasma species from 2021 to 2023sampling was performed from the liver of 108 aborted cow fetuses. all samples were evaluated through pcr tests. specific primer pairs for mycoplasma bovis (m. bovis), mycoplasma californicum (m. californicum), mycoplasma bovigenitalium (m. bovigenitalium), and ureaplasma diversum (u. diversum) species were used for the mollicutes positive samples. the electrophoresis method was used to reveal pcr results. six out of 108 (0.055%) samples were positive for mollicutes, and the 270-280 bp bands were observed. after using specific primers for positive samples of molicoites, two revealed a 312 bp band, the key of m. bovigenitalium, and two revealed a 490 bp band, which was the key of m. californicum. however, the last two samples did not reveal a bond for m. bovis, m. californicum, m. bovigenitalium, or u. diversum. this study identified m. bovigenitalium and m. californicum as potential contributors to bovine abortion. these findings emphasize the need for routine molecular diagnostics in managing abortion outbreaks in herds. future research should focus on investigating the pathogenic mechanisms of these microorganisms and exploring effective prevention and control strategies in affected herds.