MasTest™

Mastitis is an inflammation of the mammary gland and represents the most common disease infecting dairy cows. Traditionally the disease has been diagnosed by bacterial culture and biochemical reaction -based methods. While bacterial culture is commonly used, it suffers from several limitations. Among these are long throughput times (often 48-72 hours), poor sensitivity with growth-inhibited bacteria or bacteria with decreased viability, and difficulties related to specific identification of some mastitis pathogens.

We have developed a revolutionary novel service concept for diagnosing all of the major bacteria causing mastitis, as well as the most important antibiotic resistance gene (the beta-lactamase gene responsible for penicillin resistance in Staphylococci). The MasTest™ service is based on detecting bacterial DNA in a milk sample by Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). The service is based on the PathoProof™ Mastitis PCR Assay.

The test delivers highly specific and sensitive results for the following mastitis causing species and species groups:

• Staphylococcus aureus
• Coagulase Negative Staphylococci (CNS), all major mastitis species
• Staphylococcal beta-lactamase (penicillin resistance) gene
• Streptococcus agalactiae
• Streptococcus dysgalactiae
• Streptococcus uberis
• Escherichia coli
• Corynebacterium bovis
• Arcanobacterium pyogenes and/or Peptostreptococcus indolicus
• Enterococcus faecalis and/or faecium
• Klebsiella oxytoca and/or pneumoniae
• Serratia marcescens

Prevalence of the included species and groups is known to vary between countries. Neverhteless, large-scale data sets indicate that the assay covers over 99% of mastitis-causing pathogens (Makovec & Ruegg 2003; Pitkälä et al. 2004; Tenhagen et al. 2006).

The test kits are available to veterinarians and dairy producers by Vetcare Oy (www.vetcare.fi). The kits contain one tube for taking the milk sample and a return envelope. The samples are returned to the diagnostic laboratory of Finnzymes by normal mail. The results (bacterial finding and the presence or absence of the beta-lactamase gene) are available in the internet or through an SMS text message service within approximately five hours from their arrival to the laboratory.


References

Makovec J.A. and Ruegg P.L. (2003) Antimicrobial resistance of bacteria isolated from dairy cow milk samples submitted for bacterial culture: 8,905 samples (1994-2001). J. Am. Vet. Med. Assoc. 222: 1582-9.

Pitkälä A., Haveri M., Pyörälä S., Myllys V. and Honkanen-Buzalski T. (2004) Bovine mastitis in Finland 2001--prevalence, distribution of bacteria, and antimicrobial resistance. J. Dairy Sci. 87: 2433-41.

Tenhagen B.A., Köster G., Wallmann J. and Heuwieser W. (2006) Prevalence of mastitis pathogens and their resistance against antimicrobial agents in dairy cows in Brandenburg, Germany. J. Dairy Sci. 89: 2542-51.