Development of Serum Plate Agglutination Antigen using Mycoplasma gallisepticum Field Isolate

Mycoplasma gallisepticum is an important pathogen responsible for respiratory tract infections in poultry. Clinical manifestation of disease varies from mild respiratory infection to chronic respiratory disease (CRD) in case of co-infections with other viral or bacterial pathogens. Mycoplasma infections cause huge economic losses due to reduction in hatchability and egg production as well as due to increased morbidity and mortality in a flock. Early screening of infection is done by using serological assays including Serum Plate Agglutination Assay (SPA) and Enzyme Linked Immunsorbent Assay (ELISA). The present study was aimed to prepare SPA antigen using M. gallisepticum isolate recovered from the field. In house developed antigen was compared with commercially available antigen using sera collected from the suspected flocks. Results revealed 205/300 (68.35%) positive reactions using locally developed antigen and 198/300 (66%) positive reactions while using commercially available imported antigen. After statistical analysis by using Fisher’s exact test, it was inferred that difference between detection rate of both antigens was non-significant (P =1.0000). Local antigen was assessed for cross reactivity and it gave suitable results till four months. Local antigen appears to provide a cheaper and easy method for initial screening of M. gallisepticum infection.