Predominant bacterial flora isolated from the teat canal of dairy cows of the central region of Córdoba

FROLA, I.; PELLEGRINO, M.; VISSIO, C.; DUCRÓS, E.; FERRARI, M.; LARRIESTRA, A; BOGNI, C.

Tafí del Valle, Tucumán

Jornada; XXV Jornadas Científicas de la Asociación de Biología de Tucumán; 2008

Asociación de Biología de Tucumán

Bovine mastitis is the most important disease of dairy cattle. The teat canal, with its normal flora, represents the first barrier of defence against microorganisms. The study of this flora is important to determine its role in the animal’s susceptibility to mastitis infection. The aim of this study was to investigate the predominant bacterial flora in the teat canal of healthy cows and cows with subclinical mastitis. The animals were sampled by scraping the teat canal with sterile swabs. The samples were plated on blood agar and TSA-Ca and the colonies were counted and identified. Fiftythree samples were obtained from healthy cows and 47 from cows with subclinical mastitis. Over a total of 18,400 colonies, the percentages of isolation in samples from healthy cows were: no enterobacteria 32%, Enterococcus 20.7%, coagulase negative Staphylococcus 20.5%, enterobacterias 17.7%, Gram (+) bacilli 8.8% and Pseudomonas 0.3%. From animals with subclinical mastitis: no enterobacteria 34.9%, enterobacterias 20.1%, coagulase negative Staphylococcus 19.5%, Enterococcus 18.1%, Gram (+) bacilli 7.3% and Pseudomonas 0.1%. Gram (-) bacilli were isolated in at least 3 quarters per cow. We concluded that the dominant flora in the teat canal was Gram (-) bacilli not belonging to the Enterobactereaceae family, independently of the health state of the cows.