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(CBPP) is economically the most important cattle disease in Africa. The aetiological agent is Mycoplasma mycoides subspecies mycoides small colony variant (MmmSC). CBPP is generally considered to be more severe in Africa than in Europe-one explanation being that African strains are more virulent than European strains. Unfortunately MmmSC is a restricted pathogen in Britain rendering experiments involving cattle prohibitively expensive.
European strains have been shown to possess genotypic and metabolic differences from African strains; however, the relevance of these to virulence has not been demonstrated.
In-vitro growth inhibition tests performed in this laboratory have suggested no difference in virulence between the 2 groups. In this study the virulence of European and African strains were compared in vivo using a murine model (SMITH, G. R., 197 1: Tropical Animal Health and Production, 3, 169-172). No significant differences were found, suggesting that other factors such as improved husbandry and chemotherapy may be responsible for the more benign nature of CBPP in Europe.
An additional finding from this study was that strain M375, recently isolated from Botswana, was of significantly lower virulence in mice than the other MmmSC strains, providing further evidence that it behaves atypically for the species.
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