Mycoplasma excretion in reproductive male and female goats

[Abstract] Three experiments were designed in order to study the excretion routes of mycoplasmas involved in caprine contagious agalactia in chronically infected goat populations. The results obtained for external auricular canal (EAC) swabs were compared to other samples: 1) nasal swabs in 95 bucks; 2) conjunctival swabs in 85 bucks; 3) milk and vaginal swabs in 23 goats. Serology to detect specific antibodies against Mycoplasma agalactiae (Ma) was also conducted. Out of 1061 samples, the presence of Ma, Mmc and Mcc was detected in 23, 18 and 8 samples, respectively, which belonged to 24 bucks and 7 goats. EAC analyses detected 21 bucks (87.5%) and 4 infected goats (57.1%). Additional sampling (conjunctival, nasal swabs and vaginal swabs in goats) allowed the detection of further infected animals, in comparison to the sole sampling of the EAC.