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Title:
Diversity Of Ovine Associated Staphylococcus aureus
Authors & affiliations:
E. Smith1*, P. Needs1, L. Green1
School of Life Sciences, University of Warwick, England
edward.smith@warwick.ac.uk
1
Abstract: (Your abstract must use Normal style and must fit in this box. Your abstract should be no
longer than 300 words. The box will ‘expand’ over 2 pages as you add text/diagrams into it.)
Mastitis, inflammation of the mammary gland, is a common disease of dairy and meat
sheep. The mammary gland of meat ewes is exposed to many pathogens over a lifetime
and many ewes have subclinical carriage of bacteria. On occasion clinical mastitis
occurs, farmers report the incidence of clinical mastitis to be 0 – 5%. Both clinical and
subclinical infections reduce farm profitability because reduced milk production leads to
reduced weight gain in suckling lambs. Clinical mastitis causes disease and death in
ewes, and is treated with antibiotic therapy, but whilst it might prevent death it is rarely
successful in returning the affected gland to milk production.
The bacterial species isolated from intra-mammary infections (IMI) in sheep are similar
to those isolated from other ruminants, and include Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus
aureus, coagulase-negative staphylococci and streptococcal species. The aim of this
project was to investigate the diversity of global ovine S. aureus using multilocus
sequence typing (MLST) to characterise isolates from sheep and sheep products, and
included isolates from the UK, Turkey, France, Norway and the USA.
We detected novel sequences and sequence types. Ovine isolates are distinct from those
of human and bovine origin. The majority of isolates belong to a single clonal complex
(CC133) that has achieved widespread geographical dissemination, followed by clonal
expansion of types unique to individual countries or regions. The detection of the
majority of isolates within a single clonal complex may indicate a level of hostspecificity, as has been described in studies of bovine S. aureus. However S. aureus
CC133 is prevalent in domestic pets and exotic species, suggesting CC133 is capable of
colonising and infecting a variety of animals. This apparent lack of diversity between
host species may be biologically relevant and might indicate a historic lack of selection
pressure (e.g. antibiotic use) on the pathogen.