Mycoplasma

Mycoplasma are known to cause economic losses in commercial poultry production. M. gallisepticum causes chronic respiratory disease in chickens and infection sinusitis in turkeys. M. synoviae most frequently occurs as subclinical upper respiratory infection and synovitis in chickens and turkeys. M. meleagridis causes mild respiratory infection, skeletal abnormalities, and decreased growth rates in turkeys.

Rapid identification of any of these mycoplasma organisms is of great importance to the poultry industry. The diagnosis of avian mycoplasma infections is mainly based on culture and serology (RSA, ELISA...) (Stipkovitch & Kempf, 1996). However culture is rather slow, tedious, expensive and often contaminated.

Serological tests are useful but sometimes lack specificity or sensitivity (Yamamoto, 1991). Recently PCR tests have been developed providing specific and sensitive tools for avian mycoplasma detection (Kempf, 1997).