The Production of Salpingitis of Chickens by Mycoplasma gallisepticum

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Abstract
M. gallisepticum, injected via the umbilical orifice into the yolk sac or into an air sac of female day-old Mycoplasma-free single-comb White Leghorn chickens, produced a unilateral or bilateral salpingitis in 64% of 108 chickens. The salpingitis was characterized grossly by the presence of firm caseous plugs in the oviduct (s). Microscopically, the caseous plugs were composed of necrotic heterophiles. The walls of the oviducts appeared normal. Pathogenic M. gallisepticum, but no other bacteria, was consistently cultured from the caseous material of infected oviducts from 2 weeks postinoculation until after the flock was in egg production (25 weeks). Further isolation attempts were not made. Serum samples from 7 to 13 hens in a laying flock inoculated via the yolk sac as above, were positive for mycoplasmal agglutinins; however, in spite of the appearance of highly suggestive gross and microscopic pathology, M. gallisepticum could not be isolated and specific agglutinins could not be detected in the progeny of these hens even following B1 Newcastle disease virus stress. In addition, identically stressed control chickens exhibited similar gross and microscopic pathology. On the basis of this evidence it was concluded that detectable egg transmission did not occur.