Mycoplasma: isolation from prepuce and semen of bulls.

Mycoplasmas were isolated from the prepuce of 12 of 45 bulls and the semen of 2 of the 12 preputial-positive animals, and also from the semen of 1 of the 33 bulls which had not yielded mycoplasmas in the preputial sample. It appears, therefore, necessary to examine both preputial material and semen to detect potential shedders of Mycoplasma. Addition of fresh yeast extract to a solid medium of Bacto PPLO agar + Bacto PPLO serum fraction (1 %) + horse blood (5 %), and 0.005 % of 8 nucleosides (adenosine, cytidine, deoxyadenosine, deoxycytidine, deoxyguanosine, guanosine, thymidine, and uridine) enhanced the number of isolations considerably. Aerobic incubation was preferable to incubation with air plus 10 % CO2.