Study of Pathogenic Factors of Staphylococcus Aureus from Clinical Cases of Livestock and Poultry

Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus is a common dairy and poultry pathogen causing mastitis in dairy animals and septic arthritis, subdermal abscesses and gangrenous dermatitis (GD) in poultry. The infected buffaloes and birds acts as reservoirs for variety of diseases in humans. Therefore in the present study we have undertaken isolation, characterization and screening of virulence determinants of S. aureus from mastitis in buffaloes and GD in poultry farms in coastal Andhra Pradesh, India. Following isolation, biochemical tests such as Gram s staining, catalase, oxidase, Voges- Proskauer tests and haemolysis on sheep blood agar were carried out. Presumptive isolates were further screened for the presence of species specific gene staur 4 and staur 6 by PCR. 52 species specific confirmed S. aureus isolated from 60 GD samples and 34 species specific confirmed S. aureus from 100 mastitic milk samples were screened for the presence of enterotoxin genes. The percentage occurrence of each Staphylococcal Enterotoxins (SEs) viz. staphylococcal enterotoxin E (see) 3.84 %, enterotoxin G (seg) 1.92 %, enterotoxin I (sei) 3.85 % and enterotoxin H (seh) 0 % and one isolate (1.92 %) harboured both seg and sei in poultry.