Studies on Classification of Acholeplasmas Isolated from Horses, Cattle and Abattoir Sewage

Abstract

Several acholeplasmas recovered from horses, cattle, and abattoir sewage were compared with those previously classified by biological and serological tests. Strains of the Acholeplasma laidlawii group reacted heterogeneously in the serological test. Some of them cross-reacted with the A. oculi 19L strain. A granularum, A. axanthum and A. modicum strains examined here had biological and serological characteristics similar to those of their respective type species, although they were clearly distinct from one another, and from A. laidlawii and A. oculi. The H23M group or that of unclassified acholeplasmas isolated from horses, was serologically and biologically distinct from any other Acholeplasma species. It should deserve a new species designation.