EVALUATION OF POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION FOR DETECTION OF MYCOPLASMA-MELEAGRIDIS INFECTION IN TURKEYS

Different methods were compared for the detection of the turkey pathog en Mycoplasma,ln meleagridis in a turkey field flock before and after antibiotic (oxytetracycline) treatment. They included culture, serolog y (detection of antibodies by ELISA) and a polymerase chain reaction ( PCR) based assay developed by Boyle et al. [Boyle, J.S., Good, R., Mor row, C.J., 1995. Detection of the turkey pathogens Mycoplasma, meleagr idis and M. iowae by amplification of genes coding for rRNA. J. Clin. Microbiol. 33, 1335-1338]. Culture and PCR assay with tracheal swab sa mples were much more sensitive than ELISA with serum samples. Percenta ges of infected birds detected by culture or PCR for samples collected prior to antibiotic treatment were almost identical but the percentag e of positive samples detected after antibiotic treatment was much hig her with the PCR test. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.