Resumen de Patógenos mamarios emergentes: Mycoplasma y Prototheca, con especial referencia a Chile
Despite the progress that has been made nationally and internationally in the control of mastitis, this pathology of the mammary gland continues to be one of the most frequent and expensive diseases of dairy cows. These pictures of mastitis, both clinical and subclinical, can be caused by a wide variety of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi and algae, which can be classified into specific organisms of the mammary gland, the most frequent, and miscellaneous organisms, the least frequent. Specific agents can cause clinical or subclinical mastitis, can be contagious or environmental and can be classified as major and minor pathogens. Among the most contagious major pathogens are Staph. aureus and Strep. agalactiae, and between environmental Strep. dysgalactiae, Strep. uberis and some species of coliform bacteria (especially E.coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae); minor pathogens include coagulase-negative staphylococci and Corynebacterium bovis, which can colonize the nipple and mammary gland without causing inflammation although occasionally they can cause severe clinical mastitis symptoms; the frequency of isolation of these pathogens varies in different countries, regions or herds, depending on the control measures in practice in each case. Among the miscellaneous microorganisms capable of producing mastitis there is a huge variety of agents (more than 100), mostly environmental, many of which are not diagnosed because they do not grow in the conventional culture media used for the diagnosis of mastitis or simply, they are not recognized because laboratories are not familiar with their cultivation characteristics, among which are Mycoplasma (contagious) and Prototheca (environmental).
