Serological survey of Mycoplasma gallisepticum infection in Broiler Breeder farms in Mazandaran province by using RSPA and ELISA (through 2013)

Mycoplasmosis is an infectious disease of poultry and a major cause of economic losses due to decline in growth, egg production, reduction in egg hatching and exacerbation of viral and bacterial respiratory diseases.
The purpose of this study was detection of serological prevalence of Mycoplasma gallisepticum infection in broiler breeders of Mazandaran province and to suggest control strategies against mycoplasmosis.
All breeder farms that were in production period in Mazandaran province were sampled (74 farms in 14 cities); blood samples were collected from 45 birds in each farm. Sera samples were examined by RSPA and ELISA tests based on the instructions of OIE.
In this study, by the RSPA test, 3 out of 74 farms (4%), 15 out of 553 houses (2/7%) were positive. From 5626 collected sera samples, 139 samples (2.5%) were positive in RSPA and 124 samples (2.2%) in ELISA.
Seroprevalence of MG infection was 4% during the selected period and zone of study. Statistical analysis showed that biosecurity situations were significantly better in negative farms (p=0.04). There are some deficiencies in quality of biosecurity situations despite implementing biosecurity principles in farms. Establishing of farms near villages or the development of villages, keeping backyard birds close to the farms and employees living in villages are some of the biosecurity principles that were not followed in infected farms.