Bulk Tank Milk Surveillance for Contagious Mastitis Pathogens: Comparison of Two Commercial Real-time PCR Test Kits

摘要

As part of the Danish surveillance program for Streptococcus agalactiae, bulk tank milk (BTM) samples from all dairy herds are tested annually. Since 2009 the bulk tank samples has been analyzed using real-time PCR PathoProof~(TM) Mastitis assay (Thermo Fisher Scientific, Vantaa, Finland). In 2009 and 2010 the analyses were carried out with the Complete 12 Kit and in 2011-2013 with the Complete 16 Kit. In September 2014 the real-time PCR Mastit 4B (DNA-Diagnostic, Risskov, Denmark) was made commercially available. The objective of this study was to compare the PathoProof~(TM) Mastitis Complete 16 Kit with the Mastit 4B kit regarding the detection of four species of bacteria tested by both tests {Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus agalactiae, Streptococcus uberis and Mycoplasma bovis). The comparison reveals essential knowledge that may be used in designing the future surveillance program.