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Molecular Microbiology Research (Online) 2013, Vol.3 No.1 1-8
ISSN 1927-5595
http://mmr.sophiapublisher.com
1
Research Report Open Access
Biofilm Producing
Staphylococcus aureus
and Bovine Mastitis: A Review
Ali Raza
1
, Ghulam Muhammad
2
, Sumaira Sharif
2
, Asia Atta
2
1. Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan
2. Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan
Corresponding authors email:
aliraza@uaf.edu.pk;
Authors
Molecular Microbiology Research, 2013, Vol.3, No.1 doi: 10.5376/mmr.2013.03.0001
Received: 23 Jan., 2013
Accepted: 08 Feb., 2013
Published: 10 Apr., 2013
Copyright
© 2013 Raza et al. This is an open access article published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits
unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Preferred citation for this article:
Raza et al., 2013, Biofilm Producing
Staphylococcus aureus
and Bovine Mastitis: A Review, Molecular Microbiology Research, Vol.3, No.1 1-8 (doi:
10.5376/mmr.2013.03.0001)
Abstract
Mastitis is one of the major problematic diseases of dairy animals throughout the world which is associated with different
etiological agents but
Staphylococcus aureus
is one of the major causes which are responsible for this dairy scourge. Biofilm
production by the microorganisms is considered an important virulence factor responsible for adhesion of these microorganisms with
living or non-living surfaces.
Staphylococcus aureus
isolates which produce biofilm lead to chronic mastitis in dairy animals. The
intramammary infection due to biofilm producer
S. aureus
is difficult to treat even with intra-mammary antibiotics so proper
considerations should be given to the infections produced by biofilm producing bacteria. Development of an effective vaccination
against the bacteria which produce biofilm may provide success to control such type of perilous infections.
Keywords
Dairy animals; Mastitis;
Staphylococcus aureus
; Biofilm production; Antibiotic resistance
1 Introduction
Mastitis is one of the most crucial diseases of cattle
and buffalo because it causes innumerable problems to
milk production, milk processing and quality of milk
& milk products which results in huge economic
losses to the dairy industry. The physical, chemical,
bacteriological and other qualities of milk are affected
by mastitis. Mastitis as a dairy scourge represents an
impediment to the development of dairy industry. In
as much as, the milk of infected animals contains
pathogenic organisms and their toxins, the disease is
also important from consumers stand point (Munro et
al., 1984). The use of antibiotics in mastitis is
practiced on large scale which may create problems
after emergence of resistant strains of bacteria in result
of excessive treatment with these drugs and then
entrance of the resistant bacteria in food chain may
lead to serious consequences in future life (White and
Mc Dermot, 2001). The spread of zoonotic organisms
although rare in the presence of modern processing
techniques like pasteurization but in case of
unpasteurized milk products and failure of pasteuri-
zation presents a serious threat to human health.
Biofilm is a structural community of bacterial
population in which they are enclosed and composed
of self-created polymeric matrix. These are adhesive
to inert and free living surfaces that enhance the
protection of their growth in the environment. The
biofilm producer microbes start certain mechanism of
adhesion to a surface and then formation of
micro-colonies resulting into a three dimensional
structure of mature biofilm (Prakash et al., 2003).
The purpose of this article is to comprehensively
review the role of biofilm producing
S. aureus
in
bovine mastitis and impact of biofilm as a virulence
factor on pathogenesis of mastitis caused by
S. aureus.
2 Staphylococcus Aureus and its Significance
in Mastitis
Mastitis can be caused by a whole consortium of
pathogenic microorganisms. Nonetheless,
Staphylococcus
aureus
is considered to be the number one mastitis
pathogen (Athar, 2007). Although mastitis can be
caused by 137 microorganisms (Ranjan et al
.,
2006),
other microorganisms which may be responsible for