Transmission of Mycoplasma dispar among calves collected and reared for beef production

Fortytwo calves, 28 to 117 days old, were collected from 23 dairy farms and transported in a lorry, allowing direct contact between the calves, to 8 calf rearing farms. The average transport time per calf was 4.5 h, ranging from 0.3 to 12.8 h. The calves were sampled by nasal swabbing for mycoplasmas first before loading and then immediately after transport. Thirteen of the calves were transferred to farm I. They were placed in individual pens in a separate room to themselves, and were sampled at intervals for a period of 4 weeks.Ten of the 42 calves (23.8 %) originating from 5 of the source farms were found initially positive for M. dispar with titers > 4 log₁₀ ecu; 3 of these 10 calves were delivered to farm I and 7 calves to 6 others of the 8 receiving farms. Three initially infected calved delivered to farms I continued to be positive throughout the follow-up period; among the 10 initially negative calves the frequency of detected infection, and the geometric mean titer (within parenthesis), developed so that on days 1, 7, 14, and 28 the figures were: 2 (2.5), 8 (4.3), 9 (4.7), and 10 (5.5), respectively.After transport 3 initially negative calves were found positive with low titers. Two of them were placed on farm I. In one of them positivity proved to be only transient; the case seems to represent a phenomenon of transfer of mycoplasmas without establishment of infection. In contrast, at least 4 (possibly 7) calves, negative both before and after transport–ascribed above to the group of 10 initially negative calves arriving on farm I–had in all likelihood caught the infection during the transport. Two of the 10 calves most likely caught the infection on the farm; for 3 calves the evidence was equivocal as to the 2 alternatives.Seven of the 42 calves (16.7 %) were found to be initially infected with M. bovir-hinis, 2 of the 42 with Acholeplasma laidlawii. Among the 13 calves transported to an reared on farm I, 8 were found to be positive at least once for M. bovirhinis during the study. Colonisation by this mycoplasma was partly detected only intermittently and the detectable prevalence among the 13 calves at its highest was only 38.5 %.