Mycoplasma gallisepticum experimental infection and tissue distribution in chickens, sparrows and pigeons

Figures & data

Table 1.  HI results for chickens, pigeons and sparrows 21 d.p.i. with M. gallisepticum.

	Chickens	Sparrows	Pigeons
Positive^a	16/16	0/14	0/14
Geometric mean titre	494	<20	<20
^aNumber of positive birds/total number of tested birds (individual bird titre ≥ 1:40 considered positive).

Table 2.  Number of birds positive for M. gallisepticum by culture of 10 birds tested at 3, 7, 14, and 21 d.p.i.

Species	3 d.p.i.	7 d.p.i.	14 d.p.i.	21 d.p.i.
Chickens	10	10	10	9
Sparrows	6	3	0	3
Pigeons	2	1	0	0

Figure 1.  Photomicrographs of IHC staining for M. gallisepticum antigens in tissues from experimentally infected chickens, sparrows, and pigeons. Brown stain indicates presence of M. gallisepticum antigens. Tissues are counterstained using haematoxylin (blue). 1a: Moderate staining (++ ) in a chicken's conjunctiva. 1b: Moderate staining (++) in a chicken's nasal cavity. 1c: Intense staining (+++) in a chicken's trachea. 1d: Moderate staining (++) in a chicken's air sac. 1e: Moderate staining (++) in a sparrow's conjunctiva. 1f: Mild staining (+) in a sparrow's trachea. 1g: Mild staining (+) in a pigeon's conjunctiva. All scale bars = 50 µm.

Table 3.  Tissues from chickens, sparrows, and pigeons with positive staining for M. gallisepticum antigens using IHC and stain intensity.

Species	Organ	7 d.p.i.	14 d.p.i.
Chickens	Conjunctiva	++	++
	Nasal cavity	++	++
	Trachea	+++	+++
	Air sac	−	++
Sparrows	Conjunctiva	++	–
	Trachea	−	+
Pigeons	Conjunctiva	+	−
−, negative;+, mild;++, moderate;+++, intense.

Figure 2.  Electrophoresis analysis (1.5% agarose gel) of PCR products of M. gallisepticum shedding amplified by Mycoplasma universal primers (Lauerman et al., 1995). Lanes 1 and 9, 100 base pair (bp) DNA marker (Promega Corp, Madison, Wisconsin, USA); lanes 2 to 6, unidentified Mycoplasma sp. (band size around 500 bp) from inoculated pigeon cultures; lane 7, positive M. gallisepticum sample (band size around 900 bp) from inoculated chicken culture; lane 8 = negative control.