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Abstract
A serological examination, by the indirect immunofluorescence test, was made of twenty-five bovine Ureaplasma (T-mycoplasma) strains. Two of the 25 strains were apparently identical and did not cross-react with any of the others. None of the other remaining 23 strains were identical but each cross-reacted with at least one other strain, sometimes by one-way reactions. The percentage of similarity of strains was calculated and a similarity matrix was constructed. By this method, the 25 strains were found to fall into three groups. One group contained 11 strains, the second contained 12 strains, whereas the third group contained the two strains that were apparently identical but unrelated to any of the other 23. Certain strains within the two larger groups had a low percentage of similarity to some strains in the other group. Based on these results, a serological method of typing bovine Ureaplasma strains is proposed, using antisera to eight strains with which all 25 strains react. None of these eight antisera reacted with any of the eight proposed serotypes of Ureaplasma urealyticum.
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