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Mycoplasma anserisalpingitidis is a bacterial waterfowl pathogen. In these days of growing antibiotic resistance, it is necessary to search for alternative methods of defense against Mycoplasma impacts in flocks. In order to identify prophage-like sequences, three established bioinformatics tools (PHASTER, PhiSpy, Prophage Hunter) were used in this study for the in silico screening of 82 M. anserisalpingitidis whole genomes. The VIBRANT software was used as a novel approach to further investigate the possibility of prophages in the sequences. The commonly used softwares found prophage-like sequences in the strains, but the results were inconclusive. The VIBRANT search resulted in multiple hits, and many of them were over 10,000 base pairs (bp). These putative prophages are comparable in size to the few described mycoplasma phages. The translated coding DNA sequences of the putative prophages were checked with protein BLAST. The functions of the proteins found by the BLASTP search are common among bacteriophages. The BLASTN search of the sequences found that many of these were more similar to the M. anatis NCTC 10156 strain, rather than the available M. anserisalpingitidis strains. The initial screening pointed at the presence of novel bacteriophages in the M. anserisalpingitidis and M. anatis strains. The VIBRANT search results were very similar to each other and none of these sequences were part of the core genome of M. anserisalpingitidis, with a few exceptions. The VIBRANT analysis explored presumably intact, novel prophages., (Copyright © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Mycoplasma anserisalpingitidis infection is associated with the inflammation of the genital tract and cloaca, embryo lethality, and decreased egg production in geese, leading to serious economic losses. M. anserisalpingitidis has been detected mainly in Central and Eastern Europe, especially in Hungary, but the pathogen was identified recently in China, predicting it's worldwide occurrence. In this study, a novel multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme was developed to analyse phylogenetic relationships between M. anserisalpingitidis field isolates and clinical specimens originating from different geographical locations. Five loci (atpG, fusA, pgiB, plsY, and uvrA) were selected for the final MLST study. The examined 89 M. anserisalpingitidis samples yielded 76 unique sequence types with a 0.994 Simpson's index of diversity. The samples were originated from Hungary, Poland, Ukraine, China, and Vietnam. Phylogenetic analysis revealed the existence of three distinct clades (A-C) and six subclades within clade C. Generally, samples originating from the same geographical locations or livestock integration clustered together. Isolates in clade A showed the closest relationships to the M. anatis outgroup due to sequence similarity of the plsY locus. The highest genetic distance was observed in 5C among the subclades of clade C, containing the Asian and some Hungarian field isolates. The developed MLST assay revealed high diversity of the investigated M. anserisalpingitidis samples. The method proved to be a valuable and cost-effective tool for sequence typing of this waterfowl Mycoplasma species, enabling the better understanding of its phylogeny and providing a robust assay for future molecular epidemiological investigations., (Copyright © 2020 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Mycoplasma anserisalpingitidis causes significant economic losses in the domestic goose (Anser anser) industry in Europe. As 95% of the global goose production is in China where the primary species is the swan goose (Anser cygnoides), it is crucial to know whether the agent is present in this region of the world., Results: Purulent cloaca and purulent or necrotic phallus inflammation were observed in affected animals which represented 1-2% of a swan goose breeding flock (75,000 animals) near Guanghzou, China, in September 2019. From twelve sampled animals the cloaca swabs of five birds (three male, two female) were demonstrated to be M. anserisalpingitidis positive by PCR and the agent was successfully isolated from the samples of three female geese. Based on whole genome sequence analysis, the examined isolate showed high genetic similarity (84.67%) with the European isolates. The antibiotic susceptibility profiles of two swan goose isolates, determined by microbroth dilution method against 12 antibiotics and an antibiotic combination were also similar to the European domestic goose ones with tylvalosin and tiamulin being the most effective drugs., Conclusions: To the best of our knowledge this is the first description of M. anserisalpingitidis infection in swan goose, thus the study highlights the importance of mycoplasmosis in the goose industry on a global scale.