Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae, the cause of contagious caprine pleuropneumonia, comprises two distinct biochemical groups

A mini-review on diagnosis of contagious caprine pleuropneumonia

Diagnosis of contagious caprine pleuropneumonia is imperative for timely detection and devising interventions that prevent disease spread and loss to farmers. Diagnosis of contagious caprine pleuropneumonia involves clinical signs, gross morphological lesions on postmortem, histopathology, culture and isolation, hematological, biochemical, serological and molecular diagnostic tests. Culture and isolation confirms the disease however it has been costly, cumbersome and difficult owing to the requirements of specific media, slow and difficult growth of causative agent Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae. With the recent developments, diagnosis has comparatively eased by novel readymade media, advanced serological latex agglutination test (LAT), competitive enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (cELISA) or gene-based amplification of DNA, viz. polymerase chain reaction (PCR), restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP), hybridization and sequencing than the cumbersome and lengthy conventional tests; however they have financial implications and require sophisticated laboratory infrastructure and technical manpower. The latex agglutination test (LAT) is rapid, simple, and better test for field and real-time diagnosis applicable to whole blood or serum and is more sensitive than the compliment fixation test (CFT) and easier than the cELISA. PCR and monoclonal antibody based ELISA being specific aid to confirmation of CCPP. Future thrust is on developing rapid, sensitive, and specific tests that are cheap and convenient for field application.

Novel Candidates for Vaccine Development Against Mycoplasma Capricolum Subspecies Capripneumoniae (Mccp)-Current Knowledge and Future Prospects

Exploration of novel candidates for vaccine development against Mycoplasma capricolum subspecies capripneumoniae (Mccp), the causative agent of contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP), has recently gained immense importance due to both the increased number of outbreaks and the alarming risk of transboundary spread of disease. Treatment by antibiotics as the only therapeutic strategy is not a viable option due to pathogen persistence, economic issues, and concerns of antibiotic resistance. Therefore, prophylactics or vaccines are becoming important under the current scenario. For quite some time inactivated, killed, or attenuated vaccines proved to be beneficial and provided good immunity up to a year. However, their adverse effects and requirement for larger doses led to the need for production of large quantities of Mccp. This is challenging because the required culture medium is costly and Mycoplasma growth is fastidious and slow. Furthermore, quality control is always an issue with such vaccines. Currently, novel candidate antigens including capsular polysaccharides (CPS), proteins, enzymes, and genes are being evaluated for potential use as vaccines. These have shown potential immunogenicity with promising results in eliciting protective immune responses. Being easy to produce, specific, effective and free from side effects, these novel vaccine candidates can revolutionize vaccination against CCPP. Use of novel proteomic approaches, including sodium dodecyl sulfate polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE), two-dimensional gel electrophoresis, immunoblotting, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time-of-flight (MALDI-TOF) mass spectrometry, tandem mass spectroscopy, fast protein liquid chromatography (FPLC), bioinformatics, computerized simulation and genomic approaches, including multilocus sequence analysis, next-generation sequencing, basic local alignment search tool (BLAST), gene expression, and recombinant expression, will further enable recognition of ideal antigenic proteins and virulence genes with vaccination potential.

Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia - a comprehensive review

Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP) is a serious disease of goats, occasionally sheep and wild ruminants, caused by Mycoplasma capricolum subspecies capripneumoniae (Mccp). The disease is characterized by severe serofibrinous pleuropneumonia, very high morbidity (∼100%), and mortality (80–100%). CCPP affects goats in more than 40 countries of the world thereby posing a serious threat to goat farming around the globe. The characteristic clinical signs of CCPP are severe respiratory distress associated with sero-mucoid nasal discharge, coughing, dyspnea, pyrexia, pleurodynia, and general malaise. In later stages, severe lobar fibrinous pleuropneumonia, profuse fluid accumulation in pleural cavity, severe congestion of lungs and adhesion formation is observed. Mycoplasmal antigen interactions with host immune system and its role in CCPP pathogenesis are not clearly understood. CCPP is not a zoonotic disease. Diagnosis has overcome cumbersome and lengthy conventional tests involving culture, isolation, and identification by advanced serological (LAT, cELISA) or gene-based amplification of DNA (PCR, RFLP, and hybridization) and sequencing. The latex agglutination test (LAT) is rapid, simple, and better test for field and real-time diagnosis applicable to whole blood or serum and is more sensitive than the CFT and easier than the cELISA. Moreover, the studies on antibiotic sensitivity and exploration of novel antibiotics (fluoroquinolones, macrolides) can help in better therapeutic management besides preventing menace of antibiotic resistance. Re-visiting conventional prophylactic measures focussing on developing novel strain-based or recombinant vaccines using specific antigens (capsular or cellular) should be the most important strategy for controlling the disease worldwide.