Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae

Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae is a species of Mycoplasma bacteria that most commonly lives in and affects ruminant animals. It was first described from isolates taken from domestic sheep in Australia in 1972. The bacterium is a respiratory pathogen of domestic sheep and goats, bighorn sheep, mountain goats and other members of the subfamily Caprinae, and it has also been detected in caribou, deer, muskoxen and domestic cattle. It causes primary atypical pneumonia and can predispose animals to secondary pneumonia from other agents. It adheres to the ciliated lining of the airways through a polysaccharide capsule and paralyzes the cilia, so the animal cannot clear invading bacteria from the lungs. Domestic sheep and goats often carry it with limited illness, but contact with them has been linked to large die-offs of bighorn sheep in the western United States, and survivors become chronic carriers that infect lambs. Diagnosis uses culture, PCR or antibody tests, and no commercial vaccine was available as of 2022.