Serological, pathological and cultural evaluations of swine infected experimentally with Mycoplasma flocculare

Fourteen caesarean-derived, colostrum-deprived pigs and seven conventional swine were exposed to low passage, cloned, field isolates of Mycoplasma flocculare. Sera were collected at varying intervals postexposure (PE) and tested against M. flocculare and M. hyopneumoniae antigens in a semi-automated ELISA. Swine were killed six to 17 weeks PE and their lungs examined grossly for lesions and culturally for mycoplasmas. Pure cultures of M. flocculare were recovered from the lungs of 11 of 14 swine killed six to 12 weeks PE. Mycoplasmas were not isolated from the swine killed 15 to 17 weeks PE. Only one pig had gross lesions of pneumonia. Immunoassays revealed that swine were slow to seroconvert and titers (expressed in terms of optical density) were low. Three of 21 swine had antibodies to M. flocculare five weeks PE, five of 17 had seroconverted at seven to eight weeks and all surviving swine had antibodies to M. flocculare 76 days PE and beyond. Net optical density of positive sera was in the range of 0.201 to 0.412 (an optical density of 0.2 regarded as the breakpoint between negative and positive reactions in our ELISA). All of the sera were ELISA-negative when tested against M. hyopneumoniae antigen. This is regarded as a very significant finding. There has been concern that field sera might contain antibodies to M. flocculare and that such antibodies could render serodiagnostic tests for mycoplasmal pneumonia of swine nonspecific. Results of the present study suggest that swine infected with M. flocculare do not develop sufficient levels of antibodies to interfere with enzyme immunoassays for M. hyopneumoniae.