Control of Infectious Synovitis 13. The Antigen Study of Three Strains

Abstract

Infectious synovitis has been studied by many investigators. However, the true etiology was not known until Lecce (3) and, later, Chalquest and Fabricant (1) presented conclusive evidence that PPLO caused the disease. Chalquest and Halfhill (2) developed a medium suitable for antigen production. This medium was modified by Olson et al. (5), and an agglutination test antigen was produced from isolate WVU 1853. Preliminary studies indicated this antigen could be used to identify isolates of Mycoplasma involved in infectious synovitis. Based on prior work (7) with infectious synovitis, three pathological entities were suggested: (1) Infectious synovitis caused by Mycoplasma, for which the name Mycoplasma synoviae is proposed. This entity is represented in these studies by numbers WVU 1853, WVU 1464-29M, WVU 1547, WVU 1699, WVU 1507, WVU 1628, WVU 1464-36A, and cultures from Dr. Julius Fabricant, Ithaca New York, designated N~rY-SD-6-Lecce 1071, NY-SD13-NTF, and NY-SD-4-Maine 789A. 2) Mycoplasma gallisepticum, represented by WVU 1791. 3) Arthritis-producing agents represented by WVU 146429H and WVU 1675. To determine if these classifications were valid, two procedures were used: (a) antigen production, when possible, and conducting an agglutination test with serum produced by infecting chickens with the three pathological entities, M. synoviae, M. gallisepticum, and the arthritic producing agent: (b) inoculation of chickens with the specific agent, and serum-plate testing their serums against WVU 1853 (M. synoviae) antigen and Storrs whole-blood M. gallisepticum antigen.