Advanced study on mycoplasma microorganisms in sheep and goats

Sheep and goats are important farm animals in Egypt and were estimated in 1996 by 3.5 and 3.3 million head respectively. Mycoplasma is one of the causative agents of pleuropneumonia insheep and goats as it is the most serious epidemic disease causing highmortality and consequently great economic losses, so it is very essential to study mycoplasma species responsible for respiratory diseases from diseased animals as well as from apparently healthy animals.Therefore, the aim of this study is to assess the value of using therecent techniques in identification of mycoplasma isolated from sheepand goats and also to determine its incidence, characteristic features andeffective antimicrobials. In addition to see the value of usingbiotechnology in sheep and goats researches. In this study, a total of 172 samples were included from whichthere were 131 samples from sheep and 41 samples from goats. Thesesamples were collected from sheep and goat flocks in different areas inSharkia govemorate, El-Basatin abattoir in Cairo and also from the farmof Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in Zagazig. These samples were nasal,conjunctival and ear swabs from diseased and apparently healthy sheepand goats; tracheal, lung and lymph node samples from slaughtered sheepand goats. Numbers of collected samples from sheep were 131 (86 samplesfrom apparently healthy animals and 45 from diseased animals).