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. 1995 Dec 1;36(4):475–487. doi: 10.1186/BF03547662

Staphylococcal and other Bacterial Species Associated with Intramammary Infections in Danish Dairy Herds

Stafylokokker og andre bakteriearter associeret med intramammære infektioner i danske malkekvægsbesætninger

FΜ Aarestrup 19,✉, ΗC Wegener 19, VT Rosdahl 29, ΝE Jensen 19
PMCID: PMC8095438  PMID: 8669375

Abstract

Four thousand six hundred forty– five quarter milk samples from 1179 cows from 20 commercial dairy herds were examined in order to determine the prevalence of bacterial species. A total of 859 isolates from 839 (18.1%) culture positive samples could be assigned to 34 different species and subspecies. Diagnostics of staphylococcal species was based on conventional procedures able to differentiate between all 36 species and subspecies presently acknowledged. Staphylococcus aureus was found in 10.2% of the samples and was the most common species isolated. Streptococcus dysgalactiae (1.6%) and Streptococcus uberis (1.4%) were the second and third most common species isolated. Seventeen different coagulase negative staphylococcal species (CNS) were found in 4.1% of the samples. The most frequently isolated CNS were S. epidermidis (1.3%), S. chromogenes (1.0%) and S. simulans (0.7%). Isolates of S. aureus were phage typed, and isolates of S. epidermidis were investigated by phage typing, antibiogram typing, and biotyping. A total of 378 (79.9%) isolates of S. aureus could be typed by phages, assigning them to 18 different phage types. However, 6 phage types accounted for 92.1% of the typable isolates. One to 2 phage types predominated within each herd. Eleven (18%) isolates of S. epidermidis could be typed by phages, assigning the isolates to 3 different types. Biotyping of S. epidermidis produced a total of 8 different types, the most common accounting for 29.5% of the isolates. A total of 6 different antibiogram types were observed among all isolates of S. epidermidis. Resistance towards penicillin (36.1%), tetracycline (9.8%) and streptomycin (9.8%), were recorded in the isolates of S. epidermidis. However, 35 (57.4%) of the isolates were susceptible to all 12 antibiotics tested.

Keywords: Mastitis, coagulase negative staphylococci, S. aureus, phage types

Full Text

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Acknowledgments

We are very grateful to Mr. René Hendriksen for his effort to constantly keep track of all samples and records. We are greateful to Johannes Jensen, DVM for help in collecting the bacterial isolates. This work was supported by a grant from Danish Ministry of Agriculture (VEL 92–8).

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