@article{3583,
  keywords = {mastitis pathogens, molecular methods, conventional bacteriology, dairy cows},
  author = {S Spittel and M Hoedemaker},
  title = {Mastitis diagnosis in dairy cows using PathoProofTM real-time polymerase chain reaction assay in comparison with conventional bacterial  culture in a Northern German field study},
  abstract = {In the following field study, the commercial PathoProofTM Mastitis PCR Assay, a real-time PCR for identifying eleven mastitis pathogens and the staphylococcal beta-lactamase gene, was compared with conventional bacterial culture. For this purpose, 681 udder quarter samples from 173 clinically healthy cows with vary- ing somatic cell count from four dairy herds in the region of Osnabrück, Lower Saxony, Germany, were collected between July 2010 and February 2011 and sub- jected to PCR and bacterial culture. The frequency of positive pathogen signals was markedly higher with PCR compared with culture (70.6% vs. 32.2%). This was accompanied by a substantial higher percentage of multiple pathogen identi- fications and a lower percentage of single identifications in the PCR compared with bacterial culture. Using bacterial culture as gold standard, moderate to high sensitivities (76.4–100%) and specificities (63.3–48.7%) were calculated for six out of seven pathogens with sufficient detection numbers. For Enterococcus spp., the sensitivity was only 4.1%. When the PCR results of pooled udder quarter samples of the 173 cows were compared with the single udder quarter samples, in 72% of the cases, major pathogen DNA was either not found in both types of samples, or in the case of a positive pool sample, the respective pathogens were foundin at least one udder quarter sample. With both methods, the most frequently detected mastitis pathogens were coryneform bacteria (PCR: Corynebacterium bovis), coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) and Staphylococcus (S.) aureus, followed by Arcanobacterium pyogenes/Peptoniphilus indolicus with PCR, and then with both methods, Streptococcus uberis. The staphylococcal beta-lactamase gene was found in 27.7% of the S. aureus and in 37.0% of the CNS identifications.},
  year = {2012},
  journal = {Berliner und Münchener Tierärztliche Wochenschrift},
  volume = {125},
  pages = {494-502},
  month = {11/2012},
  publisher = {Schlütersche Verlagsgesellschaft mbH & Co. KG},
  address = {Hannover},
  issn = {0005-9366},
  doi = {10.2376/0005-9366-125-494},
  language = {English},
}