Abstract

Mycoplasma is a major respiratory pathogen of domestic sheep, goat and other animals causes primary atypical pneumonia and also predispose to secondary pneumonia with other agents. Species of Mycoplasma also causes conjunctivitis, polyarthritis and mastitis. For any disease, rapid and accurate diagnosis is essential to prevent the spread of infection. In the recent years, molecular genetic techniques with better sensitivity, specificity and less time consuming are available to detect Mycoplasma species. The present study was undertaken to detect the presence of Mycoplasma in various clinical samples by using 16s rRNA gene primers. Out of 20 samples tested, 2 samples showed PCR product at 280 bp level indicative of positive for Mycoplasma species. The results indicated that the PCR can be used for diagnosis of Mycoplasma infection at field level as it is sensitive and rapid compared to other conventional serological and isolation methods.

Keywords: Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR); Phosphate Buffered Saline (PBS); Base pairs; Ribosomal ribonucleic acid