Abstract
Mastitis caused by Escherichia coli is common in lactating dairy cows. E. coli is considered to be an opportunistic pathogen and originate from a contaminated environment [7]. The severity and course of the disease vary greatly and mainly depend on cow's response [4]. However, the virulence of the bacterial strain involved may also play a role. Bacteria require virulence factors to colonize, multiply and survive in the udder. These include toxins, adhesins, invasins, capsule production and the ability to resist serum complement and scavenge iron. Dominant virulence factors have not been identified in mastitis-derived E. coli isolates [5]. In this study we investigated the association between virulence factors of the isolated bacteria and the clinical course in bovine E. coli mastitis.
Highlights
Mastitis caused by Escherichia coli is common in lactating dairy cows
The bacteria from the milk samples were identified as E. coli by colony morphology on the blood agar, gram stain, typical growth on eosinmethylene blue (EMB) agar, and by API 20E test
Existence of udder-adapted E. coli strains has been suggested, as the same genotype of E. coli has been isolated in cases of recurrent mastitis (Döpfer et al 1999, Bradley & Green 2001)
Summary
Association Between Virulence Factors and Clinical Course of Escherichia coli Mastitis. Pelkonen2 1Department of Clinical Veterinary Science, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Helsinki, Saarentaus, 2Kuopio Department, National Veterinary and Food Research Institute, Kuopio, Finland
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