Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia: new aspects of an old disease.

Contagious caprine pleuropneumonia (CCPP), caused by Mycoplasma capricolum subsp. capripneumoniae, is a serious OIE-listed disease affecting goats in the Middle East, north and east Africa and Asia. Mortality and morbidity rates can be as high as 60% and 90%, respectively, when the disease first enters a territory, invariably through carrier animals. Recent detections of CCPP in Pakistan and Tajikistan are probably the result of improved diagnosis as the disease has been suspected there for many years, while those in Thrace in 2003 and Mauritius in 2009 represent new outbreaks. CCPP was thought to be highly host specific until recent outbreaks in wildlife species including gazelles and gerenuks show that the causative mycoplasma has broader specificity. Diagnosis was hampered by the fastidiousness of the causative mycoplasma but molecular-based tests like PCR have greatly improved detection. Rapid latex agglutination tests that can be performed at the penside are also available for antibody detection. Clinically affected animals respond to a range of antibiotics although it is unlikely that this results in complete elimination of the mycoplasma. Vaccines consisting of saponized organisms have been shown to be protective but the quality and efficacy may be variable.