We would like to thank AKC CHF for supporting our research on Mycoplasma cynos, which is an emerging respiratory bacterium in dogs. M. cynos is associated with kennel cough and may lead to fatal pneumonia. This bacterium is very complex, and lack of standardized diagnostic and knowledge on antibiotic therapy makes clinical management difficult. Since no vaccine is available, current treatment of M. cynos-associated outbreaks relies on antibiotics. However, the in vitro activity of antibiotics against M. cynos has never been studied and the effectiveness of antibiotic therapy for M. cynos disease is completely unknown. This may lead to unsuccessful treatment and antibiotic
resistance.
In this project we are developing methods to identify antibiotic resistance in M. cynos, which are so far inexistent. To date, we initiated sample collection (i.e. M. cynos strains), and we developed methods to culture this bacterium in agar and broth media. We also optimized a method to count M. cynos cells which will be essential to develop the method that detects antibiotic resistance in M. cynos. Further, we sequenced the whole genomes of M. cynos strains using a real-time sequencing approach. The genomic sequences will allow us to search for antibiotic resistance markers in the genomes. In summary, we are working on developing genetic-based diagnostic assays for the rapid detection of resistant Mycoplasma isolates to better inform clinical therapy. Results from this project will direct effective diagnosis and therapeutic interventions for emerging Mycoplasma respiratory disease in dogs.
