Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXVII, Issue 2
Written by Mevlüt ATALAY, Uçkun Sait UÇAN
Klebsiella species cause infections occurring in different tissues of various hosts. In terms of bovine health it is a well-known opportunistic pathogen playing a role in the pathogenesis of mastitis. In fact, such bacteria can spread widely in bovine farm environments mostly through dairy facilities and breeding areas causing eventually mastitis. Characterizing aetiological agents thoroughly can assist to understand pathogenesis of the opportunistic infections. In this study, a total of 1206 dairy cows from 6 farms were first screened by California Mastitis Test (CMT). Samples found positive by CMT, samples from clinical mastitic udders and also sıwab samples obtained from both the same animals’ rectal and nasal orifices and their surrounding environments were all cultured aerobically and a complete identification of the isolates was achieved by phenotyping and genotyping. Some bovine Klebsiella strains from the culture bank of the Department were also included as organ isolates in the study. Lastly, antibiotic resistance of the strains was detected. There is no difference between numbers of coliforms from the farms using either robotic milking or classical milking systems (p > 0.05). The highest prevalence of Klebsiella mastitis in the farms examined in this study was 8.75%. It was common to see colistin resistance in the Klebsiella isolates from all farms anyway. The lowest 12% and highest 50% resistances for colistin were seen in rectal and organ originated strains, respectively. Unexpectedly, carbapenem (Imipenem) resistance was detected and was the highest 50% in isolates from environments. The lower occurrence of carbapenem resistance 18.2% was measured in Klebsiella spp. isolated from mastitic milk samples. Carbapenem resistancy was further verified molecularly.
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