Mycoplasmosis in Slaughtered She-Camels: Pathological Studies

Mycoplasma is mainly an infectious agent of lung. This work aimed to detect such organism in lung and genital tract of 100 she-camels, slaughtered at Kerdasa Abattoir, Egypt during a period of 14-months (from January 2009 to March 2010). Tissue samples were taken from lung, uterus, cervix, vagina and mammary gland for mycoplasma isolation and histopathological evaluation. The isolation rate of mycoplasmas was 6% from lung and 2% from vagina, no mycoplasma was isolated from uterus, cervix and mammary gland and also no ureaplasmas was detected in all samples. All isolates were identified as Mycoplasma arginini. The histopathological lesions in lungs were diffuse suppurative bronchopneumonia and diffuse fibrinosuppurative pleuropneumonia with caseous necrosis. The microscopic examination of uterine tissues revealed chronic endometritis with fibrosis and granulomatus endometritis were noticed in four cases (4%) which were characterized by granulomatus focci, consisted of lymphocytes, histiocytes and multinucleated giant cells situated mostly in the subepithelial layer. The affected cervix and vagina showed chronic granular cervacitis and vaginitis with diffuse and focal lymphocytic and plasma cells infiltrations at the subepithelial region. The Mammary glands revealed acute diffuse purulent mastitis associated with galactophoritis in two cases and chronic mastitis which was characterized by chronic galactopheritis with extensive alveolar atrophy were observed in other cases. Mycoplasma colonies were demonstrated by Giemsa stain in the examined tissues. These results give a spotlight on the significance of M. arginini in she-camel.