CHARACTERIZATION OF PATHOGENS ISOLATED FROM BOVINE MASTITIS IN DAIRY HERDS FROM SOUTHERN REGION OF MINAS GERAIS

Mastitis is characterized by an inflammatory process of the mammary gland. Its manifestation depends according to its form of occurrence clinical or subclinical mastitis, type of etiologic agent, contagious or environmental mastitis and according to their zoonotic potential. Lost milk production during infectious disease process can reach from 10% to 26% of total production, depending on the intensity of the inflammatory process and the stage of lactation in which the infection occurs. Microorganisms frequently isolated in clinical and subclinical infections are Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus agalactiae and Escherichia coli, Corynebacterium sp, Proteus, Coliforms, Streptococcus uberis, Streptococcus sp, Staphylococcus sp. usually from environmental. In addition, algae such as Prothoteca and yeast are also diagnosed. The aim of this study was to characterize the agents involved in bovine mastitis isolated from the Southern region of Minas Gerais. For this study were used archived records of the Microbiology Laboratory from UFLA from 2016 to 2017. A database was elaborated and was made a descriptive analyzes performed in SPSS 20.0. A total of 13050 samples arrived at the laboratory, but 0.6% (80) were excluded because they were contaminated or the sample was damaged. As a result, 83.3% (1124) were positive for the presence of bacteria, algae or fungi and 13.7% (184) of the samples were negative. Also, it was found that 46.4% (6055) of the positive samples were organisms of contagious origin (Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactiae) and 39.8% (5193) represented environmental origin (Escherichia coli, Corynebacterium sp., Proteus sp., Coliforms, Streptococcus uberis, Streptococcus sp. and Staphylococcus sp. Besides, it was also observed that 1118 samples had co-infection and 11 had mixed infection where have grown more than three microorganisms, suggesting this results environmental contamination. As a conclusion, the results found in this study are highly relevant, since the contagious agents identified are the most prevalent and are related to public health, due to the possibility of delivering microorganisms via milk and derivatives like cheese. Also it is important mention that most of these microorganisms isolated can produce toxins that can survive high temperatures and remain in the food once the bacteria has died, this is relevant because can be source of food poisoning.