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Goats that had been inoculated with the causal organism of contagious caprine pleuropneumonia and treated, within a few days, with oxytetracycline or tylosin, were less severely affected than infected, untreated control goats. However, 20% of treated cases remained infective and were, presumably, capable of transmitting the infection.

Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) locally known as "abu nini or moaning disease" is one of the most serious diseases of goats in the Sudan. The disease has been reported since the beginning of this century. The causative agent was described as a mycoplasma by a number of authors. The Pillai strain labelled G1/61 or P goat isolated in the early sixties was recently identified as Mycoplasma mycoides subsp, mycoides SC type. This strain did not provoke disease in goats or sheep. Various workers reproduced CCPP with pleural exudate or lung homogenate but did not isolate or identify specific mycoplasma. Abdulla, Harbi, El Tahir, Salim, Salih and Mukhtar (1980) reproduced disease with culture inocula but again the organism was not identified. Recently Harbi, El Tahir, MacOwan and Nayil (1981) isolated a mycoplasma from a goat with typical lesions of acute CCPP. The strain designated SGP1 was shown to be identical with MacOwan's strain F 38 isolated in Kenya (MacOwan and Minette, 1976).In the present report the authors investigated the pathogenicity of this isolate for goats, sheep and calves. Medium for the growth of SGP1 was Brucella Albimi broth supplemented with 50% horse serum. Three to five day cultures passaged no more than 10 times in artificial media were used for animal inoculation. Titres ranged between 10 T and 108 CFU/ml and dose varied with size, age and route of inoculation.Six nubian goats aged one to two years from a CCPP-free flock received 5 to 10 ml of culture by the intratracheal endobronchial route (Abdulla and Lindley, 1967). Two desert sheep aged one year received doses of 7 and 8 ml by the same route. Two Butana calves (native breed of zebu type) aged two years received 20 ml of culture by intubation using a technique based on that of Campbell (1938). Another two goats, two sheep and two calves of approximately the same age were inoculated subcutaneously with doses ranging from 5 to 20ml of fresh culture subcutaneously. Ten control goats from the same CCPP-free source were inoculated with sterile Brucella broth in respect to each experiment and kept in separate enclosures.Animals were clinically examined daily and their temperatures recorded. Three goats showed a rise of temperature seven days after infection; temperatures reached the peak of 106°F (41. I°C) towards the middle of the second week of infection. Two goats were killed nine and 15 days after infection and the third was found dead on the 17th day post-inoculation; the three goats showed typical symptoms of acute CCPP with lesions confined to the thorax and similar to those caused by the F 38 strain. Lesions were characterised by interstitial intralobular oedema and slight distension of interlobular septa. Pleural fluid rapidly coagulated on exposure to air and adhesion to the thoracic wall was not uncommon.Mycoplasma recovered easily from pleural fluid and lung and were identified by cultured and biochemical characteristics and serologically by growth inhibition test Present addresses: ~c/o Lessing Kolleg Marbacher,

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