Pathological and immunological responses of calves to Mycoplasma bovis

Abstract

Mycoplasma bovis was identified in the UK for the first time in association with a severe outbreak of bovine respiratory disease. Subsequently it was shown to cause moderate lesions of arthritis and pneumonia in gnotobiotic calves.

The following paper describes a hitherto unrecognized necrotic lesions caused by M. bovis in the lung parenchyma of gnotobiotic calves; it describes certain features of the immune response to the infection and contrasts the mechanisms of pathogenesis for M. bovis with that of other respiratory mycoplasmas. The paper summarizes some of the work described more fully elsewhere.