Antimicrobial resistance profile of Staphylococcus spp. isolates in cattle herds from Western Amazon

Abstract

Staphylococcus is one of the most frequent etiological agents of bovine mastitis, causing economic losses to milk farming. This study aimed to describe the milk production and management practices in 15 herds located in three microregions of the State of Rondônia and to identify the antimicrobial resistance profile of 97 isolates of the genus Staphylococcus from these herds. The isolates were subjected to antimicrobial susceptibility tests using the agar diffusion method. Twenty-nine S. aureus isolates were selected to determine their minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). In the farms studied, the breeding system was semi-intensive, with the Girolando breed being predominant. Milking was performed predominantly using a mechanical milking system (86.7%), twice a day (66.7%), in the presence of the calf (53.8%). The average number of lactating cows in the farms was 24, with an average milk production of 204.9 L d-1 and a milk productivity of 10.2 L animal-1 d-1. The use of antimicrobials for the treatment and prevention of bovine mastitis was reported for all properties, and therapy for dry cows was adopted in 80% of the herds. The percent susceptibility to antimicrobials ranged from 85.5% to 100% for S. aureus, 22.2% to 88.9% for coagulase-positive staphylococci (CPS), and 69.2% to 100% for coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS), with the highest resistance frequencies for penicillin, ampicillin, and tetracycline. Among the S. aureus isolates, 100% susceptibility to oxacillin, cefalexin, and gentamicin was observed, and among the CNS isolates, 100% susceptibility to gentamicin was observed. None of the antimicrobials tested showed 100% in vitro effectiveness for CPS. CPS and CNS presented lower percentages of susceptibility to penicillin, ampicillin, and tetracycline than the S. aureus isolates. Twelve resistance patterns were detected, six of which were multiresistance patterns. The most prevalent resistance patterns were penicillin and ampicillin (PEN-AMP) and penicillin, ampicillin, and tetracycline (PEN-AMP-TET). Results of the MIC assay revealed that all 29 S. aureus isolates were susceptible to cephalothin, cefoxitin, tetracycline, and erythromycin, whereas 25 (86.2%) were susceptible to penicillin.