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Research article2010Peer reviewedOpen access

An improved method to culture Staphylococcus aureus from bovine milk

Artursson, Karin; Nilsson-Öst, Maria; Persson Waller, Karin

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is an important udder pathogen often associated with subclinical mastitis in dairy cows. Identification of Staph. aureus-positive udder quarters and cows is an important part of control programs to reduce spread of Staph. aureus within and between dairy herds. Therefore, accurate and easy-to-perform culturing methods of Staph. aureus in milk are needed. In the present study, 8 methods for isolation of Staph. aureus in bovine milk samples were investigated. The methods involved different culturing volumes, enrichment, incubation, and freezing processes as well as sedimentation and use of the Mastistrip cassette (SVA, Uppsala, Sweden). Three different sets of milk samples were collected, and 6, 5, and 4 methods were used in each subset of samples. Our results indicate an increased probability of detecting Staph. aureus in milk samples when a simple incubation step (37 degrees C for 18 h) without additives was included before culturing. Using this incubation method, the number of Staph. aureus-positive udder quarters and cows increased by 50 and 29%, respectively, compared with using the standard method of direct culturing of 10 mu L of milk. The improved method may be especially useful for detection of low concentrations of Staph. aureus in milk; for example, when screening herds for Staph. aureus.

Keywords

Staphylococcus aureus; bacteriological culturing; bovine mastitis; milk samples

Published in

Journal of Dairy Science
2010, Volume: 93, number: 4, pages: 1534-1538 Publisher: AMER DAIRY SCIENCE ASSOC-ADSA

    UKÄ Subject classification

    Animal and Dairy Science
    Veterinary Science

    Publication identifier

    DOI: https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2009-2544

    Permanent link to this page (URI)

    https://res.slu.se/id/publ/48446