Persistence of Staphylococcus spp. in milk from cows undergoing homeopathy to control subclinical mastitis

Abstract

Background Mastitis is one of the major diseases in dairy cattle, as it causes great economic losses to producers due to the reduction of milk production and changes in the quality of the product. The disease is mainly caused by bacteria of the genus Staphylococcus spp., these microorganisms can express various virulence factors, such as biofilms for example. In herds with organic management, producers and technicians use unconventional ways to treat and control the disease, such as homeopathy. However, it is not known if this type of treatment is able to control pathogenic bacteria such as those of the genus Staphylococcus, of relevance to animal and human health. Thus, the objective of this study was to investigate the production of biofilm in vitro and its genes by Staphylococcus spp. isolated in the milk of cows treated with homeopathy, as well as the persistence of microorganisms in animals. Methods Ninety-nine isolates of Staphylococcus spp. from cows treated and not treated with homeopathy were identified by internal transcribed space-polymerase chain reaction and investigated for the presence of the icaABCD, bap, aap, atlE, and bhp genes and in vitro biofilm production using the adhesion method on polystyrene plates. The enzyme restriction profile was determined by Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis. Clusters of S. aureus and S. epidermidis with three or more isolates had an isolate selected for Multilocus Sequence Typing. Results The frequency of S. aureus isolations was similar in treated and untreated cows, while 71.4% of the coagulase-negative identified were isolated in cows treated with homeopathy. The distribution of the operon ica genes was similar in animals with and without treatment, except for the icaD gene, more frequent in treated cows. Production of biofilm was associated with presence of one or more genes from the icaADBC operon. S. aureus revealed a greater diversity and greater dissemination in cows treated and not treated with homeopathy. Sequence Types ST1, ST5, and ST126 were identified in S. aureus. Conclusions The presence of biofilm-associated genes and the in vitro production of biofilms, combined with the persistence of clonal profiles of Staphylococcus spp. demonstrate other forms of control for bovine mastitis should be researched for organic production herds.

High levels of biofilm formation and prevalence of biofilm-associated genes in Staphylococcus aureus isolated from food handlers in Brazil

“…According to different studies, these genes can be crucial to adherence of Staphylococcus sp. in various sources, even in absence of ica genes, and the interaction of both proteins enables the expression of a mixed bio lm (Figueiredo et al 2017;Yonemoto et al 2019;Ferreira et al 2022).…”

Emerging Approaches for Mitigating Biofilm-Formation-Associated Infections in Farm, Wild, and Companion Animals

“…Moreover, the mammary gland is susceptible to colonization by other pathogens such as Streptococcus spp., E. coli , and coliform species, leading to parenchymal inflammation and disease. Mastitis can manifest in subclinical and clinical forms, impacting milk characteristics, quality, and sanitation, while also contaminating milking instruments, increasing the risk of zoonosis [ 62 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 75 ].…”

One-Health meets microbiota: Interactions between digestive tract microbiota, host, and environment

“…S. aureus is generally considered major mastitis pathogen and mainly induce clinical mastitis, while CNS have traditionally considered minor mastitis-causing pathogen and usually cause subclinical mastitis (Naranjo-Lucena and Slowey, 2023). Currently, however, reports of subclinical and clinical mastitis cases caused by different CNS species have surfaced largely and they have emerged as an important pathogen (Li et al, 2015;De Visscher et al, 2017;Mahato et al, 2017;Ferreira et al, 2022). Among the group of CNS commonly isolated from bovine milk samples, S. chromogenes, S. epidermidis, S. haemolyticus, S. simulans, and S. xylosus have been identified as the CNS species most likely to cause mastitis (Leroy et al, 2015).…”