Also known as: Mycoplasma air sacculitis − Mycoplasma infectious stunting − Mycoplasmosis

Introduction

Mycoplasma meleagridis is a small bacteria

Bacteria

Bacteria are a large domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometres in length, bacteria have a wide range of shapes, ranging from spheres to rods and spirals...

 responsible for air sacculitis and disorders of the musculoskeletal and reproductive systems in turkeys.

The disease is more severe in young birds

Poult

Poult primarily refers to:* A young Wild Turkey or Domestic turkey* Young poultry or fowl in general* More commonly, Poults are colloquially referred to as Turklings, a term utilized with both domestic and wild variations of Turkey....

 and occurs globally wherever turkeys are reared intensively.

Transmission is mainly vertical

Vertical transmission

Vertical transmission, also known as mother-to-child transmission, is the transmission of an infection or other disease from mother to child immediately before and after birth during the perinatal period. A pathogen's transmissibility refers to its capacity for vertical transmission...

 via the egg but ticks such as the Ixodes

Ixodes

Ixodes is a genus of hard-bodied ticks . It includes important disease vectors of animals and humans . Some ticks in this genus may transmit the pathogenic bacterium Borrelia burgdorferi responsible for causing Lyme disease...

 species can also be vectors

Tick-borne disease

Tick-borne diseases are diseases or illnesses transmitted by ticks. As the incidence of tick-borne illnesses increases and the geographic areas in which they are found expand, it becomes increasingly important that health professionals be able to distinguish the diverse, and often overlapping,...

.

Clinical Signs and Diagnosis

The disease is often subclinical but may appear as mild stunting.

Air sacculitis appears as tachypnoea, nasal discharge

Rhinorrhea

Rhinorrhea or rhinorrhoea is a condition where the nasal cavity is filled with a significant amount of mucous fluid. The condition, commonly known as "runny nose", occurs relatively frequently and is not usually considered dangerous. Rhinorrhea is a common symptom of allergies or certain diseases,...

 and sneezing.

Musculoskeletal problems can lead to lameness, swelling and crooked necks.

There may be a drop in egg production.

The bacteria can be cultured

Microbiological culture

A microbiological culture, or microbial culture, is a method of multiplying microbial organisms by letting them reproduce in predetermined culture media under controlled laboratory conditions. Microbial cultures are used to determine the type of organism, its abundance in the sample being tested,...

 from tissue samples or swabs and identified with PCR or immunofluorescence

Immunofluorescence

Immunofluorescence is a technique used for light microscopy with a fluorescence microscope and is used primarily on biological samples. This technique uses the specificity of antibodies to their antigen to target fluorescent dyes to specific biomolecule targets within a cell, and therefore allows...

.

ELISA

ELISA

Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay , is a popular format of a "wet-lab" type analytic biochemistry assay that uses one sub-type of heterogeneous, solid-phase enzyme immunoassay to detect the presence of a substance in a liquid sample."Wet lab" analytic biochemistry assays involves detection of an...

 and the Slide Agglutination Test are used for serological diagnosis.

Treatment and Control

Antibiotics are effective at treating and preventing the disease, especially Tylosin

Tylosin

Tylosin is a macrolide-class antibiotic used in veterinary medicine. It has a broad spectrum of activity against gram positive organisms and a limited range of gram negative organisms...

 but also Lincomycin

Lincomycin

Lincomycin is a lincosamide antibiotic that comes from the actinomyces Streptomyces lincolnensis. It has been structurally modified by thionyl chloride to its more commonly known 7-chloro-7-deoxy derivative, clindamycin...

 and Spectinomycin

Spectinomycin

Spectinomycin is an aminocyclitol antibiotic, closely related to the aminoglycosides, produced by the bacterium Streptomyces spectabilis....

.

Vertical transmission

Vertical transmission

Vertical transmission, also known as mother-to-child transmission, is the transmission of an infection or other disease from mother to child immediately before and after birth during the perinatal period. A pathogen's transmissibility refers to its capacity for vertical transmission...

is difficult to prevent, but males can be tested before breeding and eggs can be dipped in a Tylosin bath.