Isolation and Detection of Mycoplasma agalactiae from Semen Samples of Goats

Contagious agalactia (CA) is a highly infectious disease of goats and sheep, and is a form of Mycoplasmosis,which is usually enzootic. Since Mycoplasma agalactiae (M. agalactiae) is the main cause of this disease ingoats, the aim of this study was to isolate and detect M. agalactiae from semen of goat bucks. Thirty-nine semensamples were collected from goat bulks, and all samples were cultured in PPLO broth medium supplemented forM. agalaciae isolation. The bacteria DNAs were extracted from clinical samples and the PCR assay was appliedto detect Mycoplasma genus and M. agalactiae species using specific primers, which amplified a 163bpfragment in 16SrRNA gene and a 375bp fragment in lipoprotein gene. The PCR evaluations were performed forboth the clinical samples and the cultures. Out of the 39 samples, 29 (74.3%) of the cultures were shown positiveand typical Mycoplasma colonies grew on PPLO agar, which could be considered as the diagnostic method. Inaddition, 38 (97.4%) samples had positive PCR results for Mycoplasma genus and six (15.3%) of the sampleswere shown to be positive using PCR for M. agalactiae as the diagnostic method. In the present study, M.agalactiae was detected in semen of goat bulks for the first time in Iran. Therefore, it is recommended toconcern semen as one of the significant sources for this pathogen and the possibility for transmission to thefemale goats through semen is highlighted. Moreover, presence of this microorganism in semen could beinvolved in infertility of goat population.