Survey on small ruminant bacterial mastitis in Italy, 2013 –2014

Publication date: August 2016 Source:Small Ruminant Research, Volume 141 Author(s): Simone Dore, Manuele Liciardi, Simonetta Amatiste, Stefania Bergagna, Giuseppe Bolzoni, Vincenzo Caligiuri, Anna Cerrone, Giovanni Farina, Cosimo Oscar Montagna, Maria Antonietta Saletti, Maria Luisa Scatassa, Giovanni Sotgiu, Eugenia Agnese Cannas Mastitis is the most important disease of dairy small ruminants affecting animal welfare, agricultural economy, and food safety. Only a few investigations on the bacterial epidemiology of udder infections have been performed. Aim of the study was to describe the Italian epidemiology of bacterial mastitis in small ruminant dairy herds. An ad hoc electronic data collection module was created by the National Reference Center for Sheep and Goat Mastitis (C.Re.N.M.O.C). Public health veterinary laboratories of the Experimental Zooprophylactic Institutes (EE.ZZ.II) (n=10) were selected. Nine (90.0%) EE.ZZ.II. participated to the survey and 8 (87.5%) provided a full report. Bacteriological culture results from 30,232 sheep and goat milk samples collected in 1,795 herds between 2013 and 2014 were analyzed. Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) were the most frequently isolated bacteria in dairy sheep and goats, followed by Staphylococcus aureus; other bacterial species were Pseudomonas spp., Streptococcus uberis, Enterobacteriaceae, Enterococcus spp., Streptococcus spp. and Coryneiforms. Italian results confirm previous findin...
Source: Small Ruminant Research - Category: Zoology Source Type: research