Baniardalan, S., A. Mohammadzadeh, M. Pajohi-alamoti, P. Mahmoodi & A. Sadeghinasab, 2017.

Detection of toxic shock toxin (tst) gene in Staphylococcus aureus isolated from bovine milk samples.

Bulg. J. Vet. Med., 20, No 3, 236–243.  DOI: 10.15547/bjvm.1007

Staphylococcus aureus is a major causative pathogen of clinical and subclinical mastitis in dairy cattle all over the world. This agent produces a variety of extracellular toxins and virulence factors including toxic shock syndrome toxin-1 (TSST-1) which is the major cause of toxic shock syndrome (TSS). In the present study, 76 S. aureus isolates have been obtained from milk samples collected from 7 dairy herds in Hamedan province of Iran. The isolates were identified based on the biochemical and molecular methods using PCR amplification of the femA gene. The staphylococcal isolates were also examined for the presence of TSST-1 (tst) encoding gene. This gene was detected in only one S. aureus isolate (1.3%). The results revealed that S. aureus strains causing bovine mastitis may potentially produce staphylococcal toxic shock syndrome toxin-1, indicating that it is very important to follow the presence of TSST-1 producing S. aureus isolates in foodstuffs to protect consumers against the risk of toxic shock syndrome.

Key words: mastitis, Staphylococcus aureus, toxic shock toxin (tst)