CORRELATION OF AVIAN MYCOPLASMA INFECTIONS BASED ON DIET AND FORAGING STYLE**

Mycoplasma gallisepticum (MG) is a bacterium that is infrequently detected in wild bird populations, more frequently in House Finches. Within the poultry industry, MG is a very important bacterium as a cause of respiratory illnesses. Both House Finches and poultry are granivorous and congregate while feeding. We hypothesized that communal feeding behaviors within avian diets would cause an increase in infection rates of MG through horizontal transmission. The birds processed for tissue extraction were donated by Birds Georgia, Project Safe Flight. For each bird that was processed, the trachea and lungs were extracted and examined since these organs would be expected to have the highest chance of containing evidence of an infection. Each organ was smeared on FTA cards that were stored at room temperature. Polymerase chain reactions (PCR) were used to amplify the MCG2 gene indicative of the presence of MG, followed by gel electrophoresis to confirm MG positive samples. The birds were divided into five dietary guilds and six foraging styles based on behavior. The foraging styles included: aerial diving/sallying, bark foraging, gleaning, ground foraging, hovering and stalking. The dietary guilds consisted of: carnivorous/piscivorous, frugivorous, insectivorous, granivorous, and other (consisting of dietary styles that do not fit in our other categories). To date we have sampled and tested over 200 birds, of which only 10 birds have tested positive for MG. For our samples, there was no correlation between positive MG infection rates and diet or foraging style