Abstract

Mastitis is one of the most prevalent and costly disease of dairy industry. Among the multitude of pathogens, S. aureus is a major contagious pathogen responsible for both the clinical and subclinical mastitis in dairy cattle all over the world. The emergence of methicillin resistant strains of S. aureus has gained global attention due to its ability to resist therapy and the potential risk of carriage to humans, resulting in numerous life threatening and therapy refractory infections. In this study, a total of twenty two S. aureus isolates from bovine clinical mastitis were evaluated for their susceptibility towards methicillin by both phenotypic and genotypic methods. It was found that although 81.82 per cent of the isolates possessed the mecA gene, only 45.45 per cent of the isolates were resistant to methicillin by the in vitro disc diffusion assay. This study indicates a high prevalence of the methicillin resistance among S. aureus isolates from bovine mastitis. 

Keywords : Antimicrobial resistance, Mastitis, mecA, Staphylococcus aureus