Chamydia, Mycoplasma, and Ricketssia spp.

• Chlamydia spp.

  • formerly bedsonia (large virus)
  • Obligate intracellular bacteria
  • infectious particle - elementary bodies
• Chlamydia psittaci

  • Agent : psittacosis or ornithosis (birds)
  • MOT : inhalation of contaminated aerosols or formites
• Chlamydia pneumoniae

  • associated with mild RT infection
  • Taiwan acute respiration strain
• Chlamydia trachomatis

  Subtypes

  • A, B, Ba, C : endemic trachoma (infections that leads to blindness)
  • D to K : Urethritis, Cervicitis, Pelvic, etc
  • L1, L2, L3 : Lymphogranuloma venereum
• Laboratory diagnosis of Chlamydia

  Culture: McCoy's cell

  FREI'S test : delayed hypersensitivity skin test for LGV
• Mycoplasma spp.

  • smallest free living organism
  • found in plants and animals
  • formerly known as pleuropneumonia like organism
  • causing pleuropneumonia in cattles
• Mycoplasma pneumoniae

  • Eaton's agent
  • cause of community acquired pneumonia and tracheobronchitis in children and adults
  • primary atypical pneumonia or walking pneumonia
• M. hominid and Ureaplasma urealyticum

  • Genital mycoplasmas
  • colonize adults asymptomatically
  • cause of nongonococcal urethritis in males

  M. hominis - agent of salpingitis and postpartum fever
• Mycoplasma laboratory diagnosis:

  • Culture: Shepards - fried egg colonies
  • Serological test: Cold agglutinin
• Ricketssiae

  • Genera: Ricketssia, Ehlichia, Coxiella, and Rochalimea
  • Vector transmitted (lice, fleas, ticks)
  • Coxiella cannot survive outside animal host except: burnetti
• Afipia felis

  • Associated with cat stratch disease