E. Berriatua et al., Outbreak of subclinical mastitis in a flock of dairy sheep associated withBurkholderia cepacia complex infection, J CLIN MICR, 39(3), 2001, pp. 990-994
An outbreak of subclinical mastitis in a Rock of 620 milking sheep was inve
stigated. Microbiological and epidemiological analyses identified the causa
tive agent as belonging to the Burkholderia cepacia complex (formerly Pseud
omonns cepacia). Every ewe in the milking Rock was individually tested for
subclinical mastitis on two separate occasions, 6 weeks apart, by the Calif
ornia (rapid) mastitis test (CMT). The proportion of CMT-positive ewes was
69 of 393 (17.6%) an the first sampling and 27 of 490 (5.5%) on the second
sampling. Pure B. cepacia cultures identified with the API 20 NE system wer
e grown from 64 of 96 (66.7%) CMT-positive ewes and from 1 of 33 (3.0%) CMT
-negative ewes. Statistical analysis confirmed the significant association
between a positive CMT result and a positive culture result for B. cepacia
complex. Additional polyphasic taxonomic analyses of eight isolates shelved
that seven belonged to B. cepacia genomovar III; the remaining isolate was
identified as Burkholderia vietzamiensis (formerly B. cepacia genomovar V)
. Bacteriological investigation of samples from milking equipment and other
environmental sites failed to identify "B. cepacia" in any of the samples
taken. To our knowledge, this is the first report of an outbreak of natural
infection in animals caused by B. cepacia complex and the first descriptio
n of B. cepacia complex infection in sheep.