Occurrence of staphylococcal species in clinically healthy domestic animals

The incidence of staphylococcus species in healthy animals was investigated in young and adult individuals of cattle, in pigs and in domestic fowl, using the method of selective isolation of strains. A total of 6066 samples was examined; 4567 strains were revealed and they included all known species, except Staphylococcus caseolyticus, S. saccharolyticus, S. schleiferi and S. lugdunensis. 3.8% of strains failed to be identified with any species. The test samples were taken from slaughtered animals, only in calves intravital smears of tonsils were examined. The species most frequently isolated from the tonsil tissue in adult cattle were as follows: S. aureus (19.9%), S. saprophyticus (12.4%), S. hyicus (8.8%) and S. hominis (8.6%). The following species were isolated from the lung tissue: S. saprophyticus (28.8%), S. cohnii (10.6%) and S. epidermidis (10.2%); from the mammary gland parenchyma these were the species S. saprophyticus (17.4%), S. xylosus (13.1%) and S. epidermidis (10%). In the tonsil tissue of pigs the percent proportions of S. aureus and S. hyicus were 44.5% and 31.8%, respectively; the most frequent species detected from the lungs were S. aureus (20.6%), S. saprophyticus (12.3%), S. hyicus (12.1%) and S. epidermidis (11.5%). In domestic fowl the most frequently occurring species were S. epidermidis (23.7%), S. gallinarum (16.5%) and S. aureus (15.4%). In calves the incidence of S. xylosus (37%), S. saprophyticus (19.2%) and S. cohnii (15.2%) was found to be highest. The indicence of the other staphylococcus species in all test animals can be expressed by low percentages.