Detection of Chlamydia psittaci in enteric subclinical infections in adult sheep, through cell culture isolation.

: Ovine chlamydiasis is a well known disease in countries with a good practice of breeding sheep herds, not so in Mexico. Aiming to determine Chlamydia psittaci presence in sheep herds in Mexico, we sampled 10 different farmlands in 5 geographical zones on the highlands, gathering a total of 267 viable samples from adult ewes in SPG (92 of them were obtained in a second sampling carried out in five randomly chosen farms). Samples were treated and inoculated on L-929 cells grown in Iscove's supplemented medium; identification of the characteristic intracytoplasmic inclusions was performed by Giemsa stain, and indirect immunofluorescence in suspected samples. Isolation was successful in 92.88% of the trials. No significant differences were observed among the studied herds nor between the two samplings. This high incidence leads to consider seriously the possible pathogenic role of C. psittaci in Mexico.