Biological effects of sonicated suspension and phenol-water extract of Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides in goats.

Strain Y3343 isolated from a goat with septicemia and polyarthritis was studied. The strain was virulent and induced septicemia, polyarthritis and coagulopathy in two goats. Limulus amebocyte lysate active material was present in plasma, but not in higher titre in inoculated goats. Sonicated mycoplasma material induced a dramatic somatic cell response in the mammary gland of cows and goats and marked clotting of the cows' milk, but it did not clot limulus amebocyte lysate or kill chick embryos. Phenol-water extract clotted limulus amebocyte lysate and induced somatic cell response in cows but not in goats. The phenol-water extract did not kill chick embryos, was not pyrogenic in rabbits or goats, and did not induce generalized Shwartzman reaction or change the leukocyte kinetics in rabbits. It therfore appears that the virulence mechanisms of strain Y3343 can not be explained on the basis of factors with strong endotoxin activity.