Recombinant human interleukin-8, but not human interleukin-1beta, induces bovine neutrophil migration in an in vitro co-culture system

A co-culture system was established by culturing a bovine mammary epithelial cell line (MAC-T) and a bovine aortic endothelial cell line on calf tail collagen pre-coated inserts. This system allowed us to study bovine neutrophil migration across endothelium, extracellular matrix (ECM), and epithelium in the correct sequence and direction in vitro. The effect of recombinant interleukin-1beta (rHIL-1beta) and interleukin-8 (rHIL-8) on bovine neutrophil migration was investigated using this system. rHIL-8 stimulated bovine neutrophil migration in a dose-dependent fashion. The level of migrating bovine neutrophils increased up to approximately 25% when 100 ng/ml of rHIL-8 was used. On the other hand, rHIL-1beta at concentrations up to 100 ng/ml did not directly induce bovine neutrophil migration. Furthermore, pre-incubation with 5 ng/ml of rHIL-1beta in the co-culture system for 4 or 24 h failed to have any effect. These results suggest that IL-8 plays an important role in neutrophil migration into bovine mammary glands during mastitis.     

Isolation of <Emphasis Type="Italic">Candida</Emphasis> spp. from mastitic bovine milk in Brazil

The purpose of this study was to isolate yeast (Candida) from the quarter milk of cow udders from 37 dairy farms in Brazil and to identify the different species involved in mastitis. The samples were collected between October 2002 and February 2003. Two-hundred-and-sixty milk samples from cows with clinical and subclinical mastitis were examined. Milk samples were plated onto Blood agar, Mac Conkey agar and Sabouraud dextrose agar. Forty-five (17.3%) samples were positive for the genus Candida. The Candida species isolated were C. krusei (44.5%), C. rugosa (24.5%), C. albicans (8.9%), C. guilliermondii (8.9%), and others (13.2%). We also isolated Escherichia coli (26.5%), coagulase-positive Staphylococcus (25.0%), Streptococcus spp. (8.1%), Enterobacter spp. (8.1%), and other fungi (8.1%), among others.     

Evaluation of six commercial identification kits for the identification of Staphylococcus aureus isolated from bovine mastitis

AIMS: Comparison of six commercially available in human medicine well-established slide agglutination systems for the identification of Staphylococcus aureus. METHODS AND RESULTS: Slide agglutination tests were compared with the conventional tube coagulase test, biochemical identification and with the molecular identification by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of species-specific parts of the gene encoding the 23S RNA. Systems evaluated included Masta-Staph (Mast Diagnostics), Staphylase-Test (Oxoid), Staphytect-Plus (Oxoid), Staphyloslide Latex (Becton Dickinson), Slidex Staph Plus (bioMerieux) and Dry Spot Staphytect Plus (Oxoid). A total of 141 staphylococcal strains isolated from cases of bovine mastitis including 90 S. aureus, 14 Staphylococcus epidermidis, 10 Staphylococcus warneri, 13 Staphylococcus xylosus, 11 Staphylococcus haemolyticus and three other coagulase-negative staphylococci were tested with each method. Staphylococcus aureus strains were selected by macrorestriction analysis with pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Only genetically unrelated strains were included in the study. The sensitivities and specificities of the test were as follows: Masta-Staph 86.7 and 90.1%, Staphylase-Test 78.4 and 85.1%, Staphytect-Plus 81.1 and 86.5%, Staphyloslide Latex 77.8 and 84.4%, Slidex Staph Plus 77.8 and 84.4%, Dry Spot Staphytect Plus 75.6 and 83.0%. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this evaluation suggest that the six slide agglutination methods tested can provide rapid identification of S. aureus also from bovine mastitis. The sensitivity and specificity seems to be less than those reported from human S. aureus isolates. SIGNIFICANCE AND IMPACT OF THE STUDY: This is one of the first comparative reported investigations about the applicability of different commercially available slide agglutination tests for the detection of S. aureus from bovine mastitis using PFGE selected clinical isolates.     

Engineering Disease Resistant Cattle

Mastitis is a disease of the mammary gland caused by pathogens that find their way into the lumen of the gland through the teat canal. Mammary gland infections cost the US dairy industry approximately $2 billion dollars annually and have a similar impact in Europe. In the absence of effective treatments or breeding strategies to enhance mastitis resistance, we have created transgenic dairy cows that express lysostaphin in their mammary epithelium and secrete the antimicrobial peptide into milk. Staphylococcus aureus, a major mastitis pathogen, is exquisitely sensitive to lysostaphin. The transgenic cattle resist S. aureus mammary gland challenges, and their milk kills the bacteria, in a dose dependent manner. This first step in protecting cattle against mastitis will be followed by introduction of other genes to deal with potential resistance issues and other mastitis causing organisms. Care will be taken to avoid altering milk’s nutritional and manufacturing properties. Multi-cistronic constructs may be required to achieve our goals as will other strategies possibly involving RNAi and gene targeting technology. This work demonstrates the possibility of using transgenic technology to address disease problems in agriculturally important species. The U.S. Government's right to retain a non-exclusive, royalty-free license in and to any copyright is acknowledged.     

Survey of yeast mastitis in dairy herds of small-type farms in the Lublin region,Poland

The purpose of this study was to isolate fungi from the quarter milk of cow udders in 9 dairy farms. The samples were collected between May 1996 and April 2000 in the Lublin region. Six hundred and four milk samples collected from the quarters of 172 cows with clinical and subclinical mastitis were examined. Milk samples were plated as soon as possible on blood agar (BA), Mac Conkey agar, aesculin-tallium acetate-crystal violet blood agar, and Sabouraud agar with chloramphenicol and gentamicin. Fifty eight (9.6%) of the samples were positive for fungi. All of the fungal isolates were yeasts of the genera Candida, Rhodotorula and Trichosporon. We also isolated Streptococcus agalactiae (4.9%), Str. spp.(6.4%), Staphylococcus aureus (10.4%), coagulase-negative staphylococci-CNS (36.6%), Escherichia coli (3.5%), other microorganisms (2.6%) and no growth (25.8%). This revised version was published online in June 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

奶牛MHC基因多态性及其与经济性状关系的研究进展

本文简述了奶牛 MHC基因的结构、位置、分类、多态性的一般特性,并且介绍了 MHC基因与生产性状、乳房炎等一些经济性状的关系。     

基于高通量测序技术分析四川两个奶牛场乳汁的菌群差异

【目的】本试验测定了两个奶牛场健康乳汁和乳房炎乳汁中微生物菌群的变化,以揭示不同奶牛场之乳汁菌群的异同,评估其对乳汁代谢的影响是否相同。【方法】采用16S rRNA高通量测序技术,分别测定两个奶牛场6头健康奶牛和6头乳房炎奶牛乳汁中微生物16S rRNA V4区序列,并对菌群群落结构和多样性进行比较,分析场内及场间的乳汁菌群差异。【结果】四组乳汁样本共获得4013234条原始序列,经过滤后获得2887024条优化序列。Alpha多样性Chao指数、Ace指数、Shannon指数、Simpson指数差异均不显著(P0.05);Beta多样性四组样本均分别聚类;在场1和场2中,引起奶牛乳房炎的优势菌属分别是克雷伯氏菌属和埃希氏菌属;在2个奶牛场的健康乳汁中,场2的埃希氏菌属、葡萄球菌属的丰度显著高于场1;在2个奶牛场的乳房炎乳汁中,场2的埃希氏菌属、乳球菌属的丰度显著高于场1;2个奶牛场健康乳汁中的嗜冷菌总丰度分别为31.87%和38.72%;关联分析及功能预测分析表明,2个奶牛场健康乳汁与乳房炎乳汁优势物种之间的关系差异较大;场1无论是Level 1还是Level 2水平,均发现显著性差异的代谢通路,而场2均未发现显著性差异的代谢通路。【结论】本试验研究了两个奶牛场健康乳汁和乳房炎乳汁微生物菌群之间的异同,为两个奶牛场在乳房炎的预防工作以及原料奶在冷链运输过程中质量控制提供理论依据。     

多重PCR检测奶牛乳腺炎金黄色葡萄球菌粘附素基因clfa A、clfa B、fnbp A和fnbp B

利用多重PCR检测金黄色葡萄球菌粘附素基因clfa A、clfa B、fnbp A和fnbp B的方法,对奶牛乳腺炎金黄色葡萄球菌临床分离株进行聚集因子主效基因的分析。通过设计合成的特异性引物对金黄色葡萄球菌模板进行PCR扩增,将目的基因回收并连接到T载体,鉴定后进行测序验证,然后对本实验室所分离鉴定的金葡菌临床分离株进行多重PCR检测。PCR产物经过电泳成像显示,clfa A和clfa B分别在292bp和205bp处出现特异性条带;fn-bp A和fnbp B分别在524bp和642bp处出现特异性条带。通过对29株金葡菌临床分离株多重PCR检测发现:能扩增出clfa A、clfa B、fnbp A和fnbp B的分别有26株、12株、28株和3株。建立的多重PCR检测金黄色葡萄球菌粘附素基因的方法具有良好的特异性和可靠性,并且发现clfa A和fnbp A基因存在于绝大部分的金黄色葡萄球菌中。     

74例金黄色葡萄球菌乳腺炎的耐药性分析

目的分析哺乳期乳房脓肿患者的金黄色葡萄球菌的耐药情况,指导临床合理使用抗菌药物。方法将厦门市妇幼保健院乳腺门诊及病房2009年2月至2011年1月抽取的128例哺乳期乳房脓肿患者的乳腺脓液接种于哥伦比亚血平板,置35℃培养箱,过夜孵育18~24 h。革兰阳性球菌,触酶阳性,血浆凝固酶试验(+),必要时采用ATB-Expression细菌鉴定系统确认。用K-B纸片法检测其对苯唑西林等10种抗菌药物的敏感度。结果 128例检出细菌86例,阳性率67.2%,其中检出74株金黄色葡萄球菌(86.0%),其对青霉素、红霉素和克林霉素有较强的耐药性,耐药率分别为94.6%、64.9%和59.5%;耐苯唑西林19株(25.7%),对复方新诺明、磷霉素和庆大霉素较为敏感,对万古霉素、替考拉宁和左旋氧氟沙星100%敏感。结论哺乳期乳房脓肿致病菌主要为金黄色葡萄球菌,耐甲氧西林金黄色葡萄球菌(MRSA)占25.7%,其耐药情况不容忽视,青霉素类、大环内酯类等耐药率较高不能作为经验用药。建议临床使用抗菌药物前及时送检乳腺脓液细菌培养,以药敏结果指导临床合理经济用药。