Passive immunization does not provide protection against experimental infection with Mycoplasma haemofelis

Sugiarto, Sarah; Spiri, Andrea M.; Riond, Barbara; Novacco, Marilisa; Oestmann, Angelina; de Miranda, Luisa H. Monteiro; Meli, Marina L.; Boretti, Felicitas S.; Hofmann-Lehmann, Regina; Willi, Barbara

In the main experiment, 15 4-month-old male specified pathogen-free (SPF) cats from Liberty Research, Inc. (Waverly, New York, USA) were used as recipient cats. Five adult SPF cats served as blood donors: three of these cats had overcome a previous Mhf infection (HBU2, HBZ2 and HCD2) [28] , while two cats were naïve adult SPF cats (GCN5 and JCR4). Moreover, in a pre-experiment, a 2-year-old male castrated SPF cat (HCC4) was used. All cats were housed in groups in a confined university facility under ethologically and hygienically ideal conditions [29] . All experiments were approved by the veterinary office of the Canton of Zurich (TVB 92/2014) and were conducted in accordance with Swiss laws.