Antimicrobial resistance levels amongst staphylococci isolated from clinical cases of bovine mastitis in Kosovo

Introduction: Mastitis is one of the most frequent and costly disease in cattle. We studied milk samples from cattle with mastitis from farms in Kosovo to identify mastitis-causing pathogens and possible effective antibiotics. Our ultimate goal is to help implement adequate antibiotic management and treatment practices in Kosovo Methodology: A total of 152 milk samples were collected from cows with clinical mastitis from different farms in Kosovo. After identification of microorganisms, antibiotic susceptibility and the occurrence of enterotoxins was investigated. Results: Staphylococci were found in 89 samples, of which 58 were coagulase negative and 31 coagulase positive. S. aureus was isolated from 27 samples, S. epidermidis from 25, and S. chromogenes from 15, while other species of staphylococci were isolated from the remaining 22 isolates. Interestingly, the bacterial diversity was different between cows in different periods of lactation and among different breeds. Most of the isolates (76/89) were resistant to two or more antibiotics. The highest resistance was to penicillin and ampicillin (> 65%), followed by tetracycline, oxacillin, streptomycin, chloramphenicol (> 23%), and less than 3% to erythromycin. Of the 89 isolates, 40 produced enterotoxins that were most frequently typed as A and C. Conclusions: We detected human bacterial pathogens in the cultures of milk samples from cows with mastitis. The isolates demonstrated resistance to two or more antibiotics, some of which are frequently used to treat animal and human infections. We recommend increased control and more stringent use of antibiotics in veterinary as well as human medicine.