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It is very important to monitor the infection of Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae as a potential threat to the sheep industry. Southern Xinjiang is a major sheep breeding base in China, however, there is no relevant information concerning the infection of the region’s ovine stock with this bacteria at present. This study aimed to address this knowledge gap.

The article presents a study which identifies and isolates the Mycoplasma caprisolum subsp. capripneumoniae in goats in Gansu Sheng, China.

The article presents a study on the development of screening methods of bacterial virulence genes and the host-pathogen interaction.

The gut microbiota, a pivotal component of the intestinal mucosal barrier, is critical for host resistance to enteric pathogen infection. Here, we report a novel function of the potentially probiotic Lactococcus garvieae strain LG1 ( L. garvieae strain LG1) in maintaining intestinal mucosal barrier integrity and protecting against foodborne Clostridium perfringens ( C. perfringens ) infection. L. garvieae was isolated from the intestinal contents of Chinese Mongolian sheep (MS) and exhibited potential probiotic properties. In a C. perfringens enterocolitis model, L. garvieae- pretreated mice were less susceptible to C. perfringens infection compared with Phosphate buffered solution (PBS) - pretreated mice, which manifested as higher survival rates, lower pathogen loads, less weight loss, mild clinical symptoms and intestinal damage, and minor inflammation. Further mechanistic analysis showed that L. garvieae could ameliorate the disruption of intestinal permeability and maintain the integrity of the intestinal mucosal barrier by promoting the expression of tight junction proteins and mucoproteins. Moreover, L. garvieae was also able to facilitate antimicrobial peptide expression and ameliorate dysbiosis of the gut microbiota caused by C. perfringens . Together, these findings highlight the prospect of immunomodulatory potentially probiotic L. garvieae and might offer valuable strategies for prophylaxis and/or treatment of pathogenic C. perfringens mucosal infection., Importance: C. perfringens necrotic enteritis leads to losses of about US $2 billion to the poultry industry worldwide every year. Worse, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has estimated that C. perfringens causes nearly 1 million foodborne illnesses in the United States annually. Nowadays, the treatment recommendation is a combination of a broad-spectrum synergistic penicillin with clindamycin or a carbapenem, despite growing scientific concern over antibiotic resistance. The global understanding of the gut microbiome for C. perfringens infection may provide important insights into the intervention. L. garvieae originated from Mongolian sheep intestine, exhibited potentially probiotic properties, and was able to limit C. perfringens enterocolitis and pathogenic colonization. Importantly, we found that L. garvieae limits C. perfringens invasion via improving intestinal mucosal barrier function. Also, L. garvieae alleviates C. perfringens -induced gut microbiota dysbiosis. It allowed us to convince that utilization of probiotics to promote protective immunity against pathogens infection is of pivotal importance., Competing Interests: The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Haemophilus parasuis infection is of considerable economic importance in the swine industry due to the high costs associated with treatment and loss of animals all over the world. In the present study, loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) is described for the rapid and specific detection of this species. A primer set derived from the inf B gene of H. parasuis was used to validate the assay using 15 H. parasuis reference strains, 39 clinical isolates, 75 positive samples, and 18 other pathogens. The results indicated that positive reactions were confirmed for all H. parasuis strains and specimens by LAMP after 45 min reaction at 65 °C in a water bath, and no cross-reactivity was observed from other non-H. parasuis strains. The detection limit of the conventional PCR was 25 copies, while that of the LAMP was five copies per tube. Therefore, the sensitivity of LAMP was higher than that of PCR. LAMP is likely to be more suitable as a routine diagnostic tool, especially in clinics without complicated equipment such as thermal cycling machines and electrophoresis apparatus. In these scenarios, the H. parasuis LAMP assay has the potential for field diagnosis.