Should I speciate the positive mycoplasma milk culture isolates?
For incident cases of mycoplasma isolation it is very important to know the species involved because not all mycoplasma isolated from milk samples are mastitis pathogens. It is important to have milk sample mycoplasmal isolates speciated to determine what species of mycoplasma is present. The reason that speciation is important is that there are at least 11 species of mycoplasma which have been isolated from milk samples and not all of them are thought to be mastitis pathogens. Acholeplasma laidlawii is the most common, non-pathogenic mycoplasma isolate. It is often considered a contaminate and is seen most often during rainy, wet weather. The most common mycoplasma isolated from bovine milk samples is Mycoplasma bovis. It probably causes the most severe clinical cases of mastitis of the pathogenic mycoplasma. Other mycoplasma commonly found in bovine milk samples in California are M. bovigenitalium, M. canadense, M. californicum and M. alkalescens.
