Molecular Identification of Staphylococcus aureus Isolates from Subclinical Mastitis in Cattle

Abstract

Bovine mastitis is a major infectious disease that affects dairy cattle throughout the world and results in substantial economic losses to dairy farmers. The early and accurate diagnosis and control of subclinical mastitis is important to produce good quality milk and to prevent economic losses. The present study was aimed at molecular identification of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from bovine subclinical mastitis. The isolates obtained from milk samples of cows with subclinical mastitis were identified and Staphylococcus aureus isolates obtained were selected. DNA was extracted from cultures of Staphylococcus aureus using commercial DNA extraction kit and subjected to Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) using species specific primers targeting 23SrRNA gene of S. aureus. The species specific PCR yielded specific amplicons of 1318bp from all the isolates. It is concluded that PCR can be used as a rapid and accurate diagnostic tool for identifying isolates of S. aureus from mastitis cases.