Bacteriological and molecular investigations of in dairy goats

T. Mørk , B. Kvitle , T. Mathisen , H.J. Jørgensen

In order to investigate reservoirs of in dairy goats, samples for bacteriological analyses were collected from 7 herds. was detected in 353 (6.2%) of 5671 milk samples, 53 (9.9%) of 535 teat skin swabs, 392 (68.9%) of 569 nasal swabs and in 180 (31.6%) of 569 vaginal swabs. Vaginal swabs were more often -positive after kidding (44.9%) than before drying off (19.1%), while nasal swabs were more often positive before drying off (75.6%) than after kidding (62.0%). Retrieved isolates were compared by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and selected isolates were tested for enterotoxin genes () by PCR. By PFGE, 505 isolates were divided into 33 pulsotypes (PTs). The 5 most prevalent PTs included 73.3% of the isolates and were found in 3–5 herds. Pairs of isolates from persistent intramammary infections (IMI), repeated vaginal swabs, and from milk and teat skin from the same animal were usually identical. Paired isolates from other body sites of the same animal, including from bilateral IMI, were identical in less than 50% of the situations. The majority (71.9%) of analysed isolates were -positive. The genes l and were detected almost exclusively, but no correlation was observed between persistence of IMI and the enterotoxin gene profile of the causal strains. The frequent presence of on the mucous membranes may contribute to dispersal of the bacteria among dairy goats, hampering effective transmission control in dairy goat herds.

Mots clés: Dairy goats; Epidemiology; Typing; Enterotoxin genes

T. Mørk, B. Kvitle, T. Mathisen, H.J. Jørgensen. Bacteriological and molecular investigations of in dairy goats. Veterinary Microbiology, 2010, 141 (1-2), pp.134. ⟨10.1016/j.vetmic.2009.08.019⟩. ⟨hal-00560852⟩