Staphylococcus aureus (SA) is recognized as the most costly pathogen causing bovine intramammary infections (IMI). Infected udder is considered the primary reservoir of SA, thus use of correct milking procedures is crucial for the control of the organism. Even with all measures applied for mastitis control, SA is still the most common cause of IMI suggesting that different sources other than the udder possibly play a role in the transmission. Skin colonization has been reported as an important risk factor for SA EMI: heifers were 3.34 times more likely to have SA IMI at parturition when their teat skin was colonized by SA (6). Many epidemiological studies have used molecular techniques to characterize isolates from dairy cows. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) has high typeability, reproducibility and discriminatory power, and has been considered as "gold standard" for typing SA (1). The aim of the study was to compare the genotypic relatedness of SA isolates from teat skin and milk of infected cows using PFGE.
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