Antibiogram and Coagulase Diversity in Staphylococcal Enterotoxin-Producing Staphylococcus aureus from Bovine Mastitis

• Published in: Journal of dairy science 2007-04, Vol.90 (4), p.1716-1724
• Main Authors: Moon, J.S., Lee, A.R., Kang, H.M., Lee, E.S., Joo, Y.S., Park, Y.H., Kim, M.N., Koo, H.C.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Animal productions; Animals; antibiotic resistance; antibiotics; Biological and medical sciences; bovine mastitis; Cattle; Coagulase - genetics; coagulase polymorphism; coagulases; cows; enterotoxin; enterotoxins; Enterotoxins - biosynthesis; Female; Food industries; Food microbiology; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; genetic polymorphism; Genetic Variation; Genotype; Korea; Mastitis, Bovine - microbiology; Methicillin Resistance; microbial genetics; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Milk - microbiology; Polymerase Chain Reaction; Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; raw milk; Staphylococcus aureus; Staphylococcus aureus - drug effects; Staphylococcus aureus - enzymology; Staphylococcus aureus - genetics; Staphylococcus aureus - isolation & purification; strains; Terrestrial animal productions; Vertebrates
• ISSN: 0022-0302; 1525-3198
• DOI: 10.3168/jds.2006-512

We investigated antibiogram and coagulase gene diversity in staphylococcal enterotoxin (StE)-producing Staphylococcus aureus isolated from raw milk samples of cows infected with mastitis from 140 dairy farms in Korea between 1997 and 2004. Of the 696 Staph. aureus isolates collected in this study, 164 isolates (23.6%) produced one or more staphylococcal enterotoxins (A to D), and 19 isolates (2.7%) were methicillin-resistant. The percentage of StE-producing Staph. aureus (SES) isolates resistant to methicillin, kanamycin, neomycin, amikacin, and tetracycline was greater than that of non-SES. Ten coagulase genotype patterns were observed, including 4 main types comprising I (25.4%), II (13.9%), VII (13.2%), and VIII (17.8%). More than 4 Staph. aureus types were isolated from each of 82 dairy farms in different geographic locations, and only 1 coagulase genotype pattern was observed in 39 of the herds (47.6%). There was no significant correlation between coagulase genotypes harbored by Staph. aureus and their specific StE type. The percentage of isolates producing major StE types (A, B, AC, and ABCD) and being resistant to cephalothin and methicillin was greater among the Staph. aureus isolates with the 4 predominant coagulase genotypes (I, II, VII, and VIII) than among the isolates harboring the 6 rare coagulase types (III, IV, V, VI, IX, and X). Based on coagulase gene polymorphisms, our data indicate that a broad distribution of identical or closely related enterotoxin-producing Staph. aureus strains seem to contribute to bovine mastitis in the Republic of Korea.