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Mycoplasma ovis comb. nov. (formerly Eperythrozoon ovis), an epierythrocytic agent of haemolytic anaemia in sheep and goats

¹ Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Box 44, College of Medicine, State University of New York, 450 Clarkson Avenue, Brooklyn, NY 11203, USA
² Animal Health Laboratory, Laboratory Service Division, University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada NIH 6R8
³ Clinic for Pigs, Small Ruminants, Forensic Medicine and Ambulatory Service, School of Veterinary Medicine, D-30173 Hannover, Germany

Correspondence
Harold Neimark
neimah25{at}hscbklyn.edu

Eperythrozoon ovis, an erythrocytic agent that causes haemolytic anaemia in sheep and goats, occurs worldwide and is currently thought to be a rickettsia. To determine the relationship between this agent and other haemotrophic bacterial parasites, the 16S rRNA gene of this organism was sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis revealed that this wall-less bacterium is not a rickettsia, but a mycoplasma. This mycoplasma is related closely to several other uncultivated, epierythrocytic mycoplasmas that comprise a recently identified group, the haemotrophic mycoplasmas (haemoplasmas). The haemoplasma group is composed of former Eperythrozoon and Haemobartonella species, as well as newly identified epierythrocytic mycoplasmas. Haemoplasmas parasitize the surface of erythrocytes of a wide variety of vertebrate animal hosts and are transmitted mainly by blood-feeding arthropod vectors. Recognition that E. ovis is a mycoplasma provides a new approach to dealing with this bacterium. It is proposed that E. ovis should be reclassified as Mycoplasma ovis comb. nov.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession number for the 16S rRNA gene sequence of the Hannover strain of Mycoplasma ovis is AF338268.

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