Bacteriocins are antibacterial peptides or proteins that generally affect members of related genera or species. They constitute a family of compounds that arose during the evolution of Microbial Defense Systems, which comprise many families of molecules used by bacteria to compete successfully for survival. While bacteriocins were discovered around the same time as classical small molecule antibiotics (Rogers, 1928), they were not developed as actively as medicines due to the comparatively narrow spectrum of activity of bacteriocins. While the use of bacteriocins in prevention and treatment of mastitis is by no means a new idea, recent focus on managing subclinical mastitis and minimizing antibiotic use in food animals has led to a renewed interestin evaluating bacteriocins as a tool in managing mastitis. This paper will present an overview of bacteriocin structure and function, mastitis applications that exploit their attributes, potential drawbacks in their use, and current status of bacteriocin-based mastitis products.
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