Abstract
Isolation and identification of Mycoplasma were performed to clarify Mycoplasma infection of mice fed by conventional feeding at two ($K_1$, $K_2$) institutes in Korea. The twenty mice to be tested were randomly sampled from each of 10 breeding colonies in respective institute. Identification of the Mycoplasma strains isolated from the nasal cavity, lung and synovia of mice was made according to the morphology of colonies, biological and biochemical properties with special reference to M. pulmonis, M. arthrotodis and M. neurolyticum. In addition, growth inhibition test was performed using hyperimmune rabbit antisera to the strain PG-22 of M. pulmonis, the strain PG-6 of M, arthritidis and the strain PG-28 of M. neurolyticum and also differentiation of isolates from L-form bacteria was dont by Dieses staining and culture method with passage of the isolates on liquid media eliminated antibacterial drug. On the other hand, a total of 13 strains out of the 44 isolated M. pulmonis from mice was investigated for their susceptibility against 16 antibiotics in vitro. The antibiotic sensitivity test was made using $3{\times}10^4$ organisms/0.3ml on each plate(90mm diameter) with antibiotic mono-or tri-disk. The results obtained are summarized as follows: 1. Out of 20 mice from 10 breeding colonies in Kl institute, mycoplasma-like strains from the nasal cavity of 16 mice(80%) and from the lung of 8 mice(40%) were isolated, while out of 20 mice in K2 institute, M-like strains were isolated from the nasal cavity of 14 mice(70%) and from the lung of 6 mice(30%). However, no mycoplasma-like organisms were isolated from the synovia of the 40 mice examined. All the 44 strains isolated were identified as the organisms of M. pulmonis. 2. Out of the 16 antibiotics tested, penicillin, oleandomycin and bacitracin showed no activity against all the 13 M. pulmonis strains. On the contrary, lincomycin, clindamycin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, minocycline, kanamycin, gentamycin and tobramycin showed high activity with three different antibiotic concentration of tridisk, but amikasin and spiramycin showed intermediate activity. Other antibiotics such as polymyxin B and colistin showed low activity, while erythromycin showed lower activity than others.