A COMPARISON OF SEROLOGICAL TESTS AND GROSS LUNG PATHOLOGY FOR DETECTING CONTAGIOUS BOVINE PLEUROPNEUMONIA IN 2 GROUPS OF ITALIAN CATTLE

Western and dot blotting techniques were compared with complement fixa tion tests (CFT), indirect enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISA), mycoplasma culture and gross lung pathology to detect Mycoplasma myco ides subspecies mycoides SC, the cause of contagious bovine pleuropneu monia (CBPP), in two groups of Italian cattle. None of the animals sho wed any clinical signs before slaughter. In group A, seven of the 20 c attle had characteristic lung lesions of acute and chronic CBPP but on ly six were positive by CFT, Western blotting detected antibody in eig ht of the animals, of which six had lesions and significant CFT titres (>50 per cent fixation at a serum dilution of 1/10) and two had neith er. In group B, seven of the 17 cattle had lesions characteristic of C BPP, and 12 were seropositive by CFT, Western blotting detected antibo dy in 13 of the animals including one which had a negative CFT titre. The ELISA was less sensitive than either CFT or Western blotting, dete cting antibody in five animals in group A and nine animals in group B, The dot blotting test correlated web with Western blotting but gave a small number of ambiguous results, The causative organism was isolate d from four of the 20 cattle in group A and six of the 17 cattle in gr oup B.