Coagulase Negative Staphylococcal Species Mastitis: An Overview

Bovine mastitis is one of economically important disease affecting livestock and causing economic losses to dairy farmers in India. Coagulase Negative Staphylococcus (CNS) species also infects the mammary glands of animals and leads to persistent or subclinical mastitis. The prevalence of CNS mastitis in various parts of the world were 6-72 and 6-30% in subclinical and clinical mastitis cases, respectively. Epidemiology of CNS species causing mastitis in animals gives the newer approaches for preventing the occurrence of CNS species mastitis. The CNS species predominantly isolated from milk were S. chromogenes, S. epidermidis, S. haemolyticus, S. simulans, S. warneri, S. hominis, S. saprophyticus, S. xylosus, S. hyicus, S. sciuri and S. intermedius. The S. epidermidis intramammary infections were found in multiparous cow and S. chromogenes in primiparous cows. The CNS mastitis shows only mild clinical signs and cause persistent infections, resulting in increased milk SCC, which affects milk quality and may be related to decreased milk production. The clinical signs, diagnosis and treatment of CNS mastitis are necessary for effective control and prevention. There was emergence of CNS species as an important mastitis causing pathogen in subclinical mastitis and persistence infection of udder in dairy animals of India and world. In conclusion, there is need to further identify the CNS at species level and also systematic experimental study of various CNS species in dairy animals is required for better understanding the occurrence of CNS mastitis in livestock of India. Further, comparative study of CNS mastitis with organisms causing severe mastitis in various animal models to know the basic mechanisms of host pathogen interaction using advance molecular biology tools is necessary.