Biofilm Research in Bovine Mastitis

Abstract

Bovine mastitis is one of the most important diseases in the dairy industry and has detrimental impact on the economy and welfare of the animals. Further, treatment failure results in increased antibiotic use in the dairy industry, as some of these mastitis cases for unknown reasons are not resolved despite standard antibiotic treatment. Chronic biofilm infections are notoriously known to be difficult to eradicate with antibiotics and biofilm formation could be a possible explanation for mastitis cases that are not resolved by standard treatment. This paper reviews the current literature on biofilm in bovine mastitis research to evaluate the status and methods used in the literature. Focus of the current research has been on isolates from milk samples and investigation of their biofilm forming properties in vitro. However, in vitro observations of biofilm formation are not easily comparable with the in vivo situation inside the udder. Only two papers investigate the location and distribution of bacterial biofilms inside udders of dairy cows with mastitis. Based on the current knowledge, the role of biofilm in bovine mastitis is still unclear and more in vivo investigations are needed to uncover the actual role of biofilm formation in the pathogenesis of bovine mastitis.

Etiology of Mastitis and Antimicrobial Resistance in Dairy Cattle Farms in the Western Part of Romania

“…None of the isolates were sensitive for all antimicrobials, an aspect also observed by others [ 34 , 35 , 36 ]. In the present research, all 14 strains tested showed the multiple resistance phenomenon, as follows: six strains (42.9%) to five antimicrobials, three strains (21.4%) to six antimicrobials, two strains (14.3%) to eight antimicrobials, two strains (14.3%) to nine antimicrobials and one strain (7.1%) to ten antimicrobials.…”

Biofilm Formation of Staphylococcus aureus from Pets, Livestock, and Wild Animals: Relationship with Clonal Lineages and Antimicrobial Resistance

“…In fact, biofilm are responsible for up to 80% of all human chronic and recurrent infections [ 35 , 36 ]. However, in veterinary medicine, only a few studies report the role of biofilm in animal infections [ 37 , 38 , 39 ]. In one of the most studied animal infections, mastitis, it has already been demonstrated that chronic and recurrent bovine mastitis share similar characteristics with chronic human infections [ 37 ].…”

Bovine-associated non-aureus staphylococci suppress Staphylococcus aureus biofilm dispersal in vitro yet not through agr regulation

“…Some authors have discussed that the presence or absence of bovine NAS isolates sharing the same niche as S. aureus may play a role in the host colonization [ 18 ], whereas others [ 37 , 52 ] observed a robust biofilm formation by NAS plus S. aureus in isolates from pigs, with no evident out-competition of one over the other species when growing in physical contact. According to Otto [ 53 ], in fact more than one mechanism could be involved in the biofilm formation and dispersion of staphylococci species, such as the bacterial social behavior (cooperation and/or competition), the molecular mechanism (e.g., bacterial signaling, coaggregation, or co-metabolism) [ 51 ], the immune response of the host (bovine mammary gland immune response), and both intrinsic and acquired traits of the isolates involved in the dual-species bacterial biofilms [ 54 ]. Nevertheless, as biofilms are extremely hard to eradicate by both the host and by antimicrobial therapies, these dual-species interactions would allow both species to persist in a colonizing state more robustly in one hand, but on the other hand would also provide a constant reservoir for possible S. aureus chronic infections [ 38 ].…”