Short Communication: Isolation of Prototheca Species Strains from Environmental Sources in Dairy Herds

Abstract

Composite milk samples from 548 cows, and samples from feces, feed, bedding, water, liners (before and after milking), and the postdipping product were aseptically collected from 2 Italian dairy herds from February to November of 2006. Prototheca zopfii was isolated from 11.9% of milk samples, 15% of feces, and 33.3% of bedding samples. No viable cells of P. zopfii were observed in water before washing procedures, whereas 25 to 28.6% of samples from water used for washing both refrigeration tanks and milking equipment were contaminated with this yeast-like microalga. Analogously, the presence of P. zopfii was detected only on swabs collected from the liners after milking. Interestingly, in 1 of the 2 herds, water from the drinking trough was contaminated by viable cells of both P. zopfii and the related environmental species Prototheca stagnora. No viable cells were observed in cow feed. On the basis of the results presented herein, P. zopfii seemed to be widespread throughout the environments of dairy herds where outbreaks of bovine mastitis had occurred.

Characterization of Prototheca zopfii Genotypes Isolated from Cases of Bovine Mastitis and Cow Barns in China

“…Results of present study show the isolation rate for P. zopfii was 13.5 % from among the other pathogens isolated from mastitic milk, which was considerably higher than that observed in several [7,22,28]. It is difficult to predict whether this increase in prevalence of P. zopfii mastitis observed was because of different regions selected for this study or was the result of improper management of herds under study.…”

“…It is difficult to predict whether this increase in prevalence of P. zopfii mastitis observed was because of different regions selected for this study or was the result of improper management of herds under study. Bovine mastitis caused by P. zopfii genotype 2 has been reported from several countries, whereas P. zopfii genotypes 1 were only observed in the cow barn sources [7][8][9]28]. Prototheca zopfii genotype 2 has also been isolated from the environmental sources of cow herds, such as drinking water, animal dung and dirt, animal feed and bedding materials [1,6,7,9,22].…”

Molecular identification of Prototheca zopfii genotype 2 mastitis isolates and their influence on the milk somatic cell count

“…Prototheca mastitis is rapidly becoming a problem worldwide (BUZZINI et al, 2004;SCACCABAROZZI et al, 2008;RICCHI et al, 2010) and in the Republic of Serbia it was first diagnosed and described by MILANOV et al (2006) but without molecular characterization of Prototheca strains. Genotype-specific PCR assays, based on the 18S rDNA gene sequences, have recently been developed to differentiate three genotypes of Prototheca zopfii, of which Prototheca zopfii genotype 3 was reclassified in a new species Prototheca blaschkeae (ROESLER et al, 2006).…”

“…Algae from the genus Prototheca are the only plant-like microorganisms which can cause inflammation and alterations in the mammary gland (JAGIELSKI et al, 2011). Prototheca mastitis is rapidly becoming a problem worldwide (BUZZINI et al, 2004;SCACCABAROZZI et al, 2008;RICCHI et al, 2010) and in the Republic of Serbia it was diagnosed and described first by MILANOV et al (2006).…”

A novel DNA extraction and duplex polymerase chain reaction assay for the rapid detection of Prototheca zopfii genotype 2 in milk

“…Bovine mastitis, typically caused by a bacterial infection, is generally considered a major cause of economic loss to the dairy industry. Among the various mastitis types, protothecal mastitis is rapidly becoming a global problem (Jánosi et al 2001;Buzzini et al 2004;Scaccabarozzi et al 2008). Although protothecal mastitis is often recognized as a symptomless infection that progresses slowly, acute clinical mastitis associated with reduced milk production, thin watery secretion with white flakes and resistant to conventional therapy may occur in outbreaks (Jánosi et al 2001;Marques et al 2006;Möller et al 2007).…”