Mycoplasma bovis in Nordic European Countries: Emergence and Dominance of a New Clone

Tardy, Florence; Aspán, Anna; Autio, Tiina; Ridley, Anne; Tricot, Agnès; Colin, Adélie; Pohjanvirta, Tarja; Smid, Bregtje; Harders, Frank; Lindegaard, Mikkel; Lauritsen, Klara Tølbøll; Lyhs, Ulrike; Wisselink, Henk J.; Strube, Mikael Lenz

doi:10.3390/pathogens9110875

Cited by 17 publications

(36 citation statements)

References 52 publications

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“…The annual number of new cases is presented in Figure 6. The original infection source is unknown, but Finnish M. bovis strains resemble clones found in Denmark and Sweden (28). Contaminated bull semen was a source for some dairy herds (29).…”

Section: Mycoplasma Bovismentioning

confidence: 99%

Overview of Control Programs for Cattle Diseases in Finland

et al. 2021

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Animal disease control has a long tradition in Finland. The country is free of all EU-regulated cattle diseases of categories A and B. Infectious bovine rhinotracheitis, enzootic bovine leucosis, bovine viral diarrhea, bluetongue, bovine genital campylobacteriosis, and trichomoniasis do not currently exist in the country. The prevalence of paratuberculosis, Mycoplasma bovis, salmonella infection, and Q-fever is low. The geographic location, cold climate, low cattle density, and limited animal imports have contributed to the favorable disease situation. Besides screening for selected regulated diseases, the national disease-monitoring program includes periodic active monitoring of non-regulated diseases, which allows assessment of the need for new control measures. The detection of diseases through efficient passive surveillance also plays an important part in disease monitoring. The Finnish cattle population totals 850,000 animals kept on 9,300 cattle farms, with 62,000 suckler cows in 2,100 herds and 260,000 dairy cows in 6,300 herds. Animal Health ETT, an association owned by the dairy and meat industry, keeps a centralized cattle health care register. Animal Health ETT supervises cattle imports and trade within the country and runs voluntary control programs (CP) for selected diseases. Active cooperation between authorities, the cattle industry, Animal Health ETT, and herd health experts enables the efficient planning and implementation of CPs. CPs have been implemented for non-EU-regulated diseases such as salmonella, M. bovis, ringworm, and Streptococcus agalactiae. The CP for salmonellosis is compulsory and includes all Salmonella serotypes and all cattle types. It has achieved the goal of keeping the salmonella prevalence under 1% of cattle herds. CPs for M. bovis, ringworm, and S. agalactiae are on a voluntary basis and privately funded. The CP for Mycoplasma was designed in collaboration with national experts and has been implemented since 2013. The CP includes observation of clinical signs, nasal swab sampling from calves, and bulk tank milk and clinical mastitis samples for M. bovis. Mycoplasma bovis-negative herds gradually achieve lower status levels for M. bovis infection. The general challenge facing voluntary CPs is getting farms to join the programs.

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Section: Mycoplasma Bovismentioning

confidence: 99%

Overview of Control Programs for Cattle Diseases in Finland

et al. 2021

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“…Other studies reported decreasing diversity and mono-clonal spread in several countries (22,(36)(37)(38). The existence of lineages with a high level of genetic diversity and others with low diversity has been described at worldwide scale (39,40). This situation is not limited to M. bovis and has been observed in other mycoplasmas like in small ruminants with M. agalactiae (41,42) where ovine isolates are described as more clonal whereas caprine are more variable (43).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 92%

“…The amplicon sequences of these housekeeping genes were extracted from the annotated assemblies using Artemis 16.0.0 (48) and MLST primer sequences. They were trimmed to the analysis sequence size using MEGA X (51) and allelic profiles were assigned by blast comparison with the different allele sequences of each gene included in MLST-1 (23,39,52). New STs and allele sequences are provided in Tables S2 and S3.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Genome mosaicism in field strains of Mycoplasma bovis as footprints of in-host horizontal chromosomal transfer

García-Galán

Baranowski

Hygonenq

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Horizontal gene transfer was long thought to be marginal in Mollicutes, but the capacity of some of these wall-less bacteria to exchange large chromosomal regions has been recently documented. Mycoplasma chromosomal transfer (MCT) is an unconventional mechanism that relies on the presence of a functional integrative conjugative element (ICE) in at least one partner and involves the horizontal acquisition of small and large chromosomal fragments from any part of the donor genome, which results in progenies composed of an infinitive variety of mosaic genomes. The present study focuses on Mycoplasma bovis, an important pathogen of cattle responsible for major economic losses worldwide. By combining phylogenetic tree reconstructions and detailed comparative genome analyses of 36 isolates collected in Spain (2016-2018) we confirmed the mosaic nature of 16 field isolates and mapped chromosomal transfers exchanged between their hypothetical ancestors. This study provides evidence that MCT can take place in the field, most likely during co-infections by multiple strains. Because mobile genetic elements (MGEs) are classical contributors of genome plasticity, the presence of phages, insertion sequences (ISs) and ICEs was also investigated. Data revealed that these elements are widespread within the M. bovis species and evidenced classical horizontal transfer of phages and ICEs in addition to MCT. These events contribute to wide-genome diversity and reorganization within this species and may have a tremendous impact on diagnostic and disease control.IMPORTANCEMycoplasma bovis is a major pathogen of cattle with significant detrimental economic and animal welfare on cattle rearing worldwide. Understanding the evolution and the adaptative potential of pathogenic mycoplasma species in the natural host is essential to combating them. In this study, we documented the occurrence of mycoplasma chromosomal transfer, an atypical mechanism of horizontal gene transfer, in field isolates of M. bovis that provide new insights into the evolution of this pathogenic species in their natural host. Despite these events are expected to occur at low frequency, their impact is accountable for genome-wide variety and reorganization within M. bovis species, which may compromise both diagnostic and disease control.

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“…Systemic infection manifesting as more than one clinical syndrome presenting concurrently, such as pneumonia and arthritis has been previously reported, with concurrent syndrome diagnoses observed in this study (14,(25)(26)(27)(28). Individual strains have been recovered from different sites within a host, and genetic similarity evaluations by pulsed-eld gel electrophoresis, multi-locus sequence typing and most recently, whole genome sequencing, have all demonstrated M. bovis strains from different farms and countries that are associated with cases of pneumonia, mastitis and arthritis are often indistinguishable (29)(30)(31)(32)(33). These ndings would suggest that particular disease syndromes may be less associated with pathogen factors and more to do with host and environmental factors (34), although the mechanisms by which the organism is able to evade the immune system to circulate in the host remains an important knowledge gap (35).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Identification of Mycoplasma Species and Related Organisms From Ruminants in England and Wales During 2005 – 2019

Deeney

Collins

Ridley

2021

Preprint

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Background: Mycoplasma species have been associated with economically important diseases affecting ruminants worldwide and include contagious bovine pleuropneumonia (CBPP), contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) and contagious agalactia, listed by the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). The Mycoplasma Team at the Animal and Plant Health Agency provides an identification service for Mycoplasma and Ureaplasma species of veterinary importance to the United Kingdom (UK), supporting the detection of new and emerging pathogens, as well as contributing to the surveillance of endemic, and the OIE listed diseases exotic to the UK. Mycoplasma and other Mollicutes species were identified from diagnostic samples from farmed ruminants in England and Wales using a combination of culture and 16S rRNA gene-based PCR-denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis, submitted between 2005 and 2019.Results: A total of 5578 mollicutes identifications, which include mycoplasmas and the related acholeoplasmas and ureaplasmas, were made from farmed ruminant animals during the study period. Throughout the study period, the pathogen Mycoplasma bovis was consistently the most frequently identified species, accounting for 1411 (32%) of 4447 molecular identifications in cattle, primarily detected in the lungs of pneumonic calves, followed by joints and milk of cattle showing signs of arthritis and mastitis, respectively. M. bovirhinis, M. alkalescens, M. dispar, M. arginini and Ureaplasma diversum, were also common. Mixed species, principally M. bovis with M. alkalescens, M. arginini or M. bovirhinis were also prevalent, particularly from respiratory samples. The non-cultivable blood-borne haemoplasmas Candidatus ‘Mycoplasma haemobos’ and Mycoplasma wenyonii were identified from cattle, with the latter species most often associated with milk-drop. M. ovipneumoniae was the predominant species identified from sheep and goats experiencing respiratory disease, while M. conjunctivae preponderated in ocular samples. The UK remains free of the ruminant mycoplasmas listed by OIE. Conclusions: The continued high prevalence of M. bovis identifications confirms its ongoing dominance and importance as a significant pathogen of cattle in England and Wales, particularly in association with respiratory disease. M. ovipneumoniae has seen a general increase in prevalence in recent years, notably in coughing lambs and should therefore be considered as a primary differential diagnosis of respiratory disease in small ruminants.

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Mycoplasma bovis in Nordic European Countries: Emergence and Dominance of a New Clone

Cited by 17 publications

References 52 publications

Overview of Control Programs for Cattle Diseases in Finland

Overview of Control Programs for Cattle Diseases in Finland

Genome mosaicism in field strains of Mycoplasma bovis as footprints of in-host horizontal chromosomal transfer

Identification of Mycoplasma Species and Related Organisms From Ruminants in England and Wales During 2005 – 2019

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