Isolation of Mycoplasma Dispar from Mastitis in Dry Cows

Abstract

Sir:— Brownlie et al. have shown that the bovine mammary gland provides a suitable environment for assessing the potential pathogenicity of bovine mycoplasmas and Ureaplasmas recovered from varied sites.(2) Mycoplasma dispar, which is considered important in the aetiology of calf pneumonia, has proved markedly pathogenic for the udder, six of seven respiratory tract isolates producing clinical mastitis when experimentally inoculated via the teat canal.(2) Despite this potential, there appear to be no reports of the recovery of this mycoplasma species from field cases of bovine mastitis. In this letter we describe such an episode.