Monitoring and characteristics of major mastitis pathogens from Bulk tank milk in Korea

In many countries, bulk tank milk (BTM) has been used for examining milk and analyzed as an important part of milk quality assurance programs. The objectives of this study were to investigate milk quality and the presence of major mastitis pathogens in BTM, and to compare the characteristics of BTM by dairy factory or company. A total of 1588 batches of BTM samples were collected from 396 dairy farms of seven dairy factories owned by four companies in Korea. The means of individual bacterial counts (IBC) and somatic cell count (SCC) were 3.7 × 10⁴ cells/mL and 1.1 × 10⁵ cells/mL, respectively, and no significant differences among dairy factories were observed. The most common pathogen was Staphylococcus spp. (60.1%), followed by E. faecalis (53.8%), E. coli (37.6%) and Streptococcus spp. (22.5%). Enterococcus spp. showed the highest resistance to tetracyclines (51.1% to 73.9%) and macrolides (46.5%). S. aureus and coagulase‐negative staphylococci (CNS) showed the highest resistance to penicillin (28.4% and 40.2%, respectively), and three (3.2%) S. aureus and seven (3.3%) CNS were also methicillin‐resistant. These data show the diverse prevalence and characteristics of major mastitis pathogens among factories, and support the development of strong monitoring and prevention programs of mastitis pathogens by commercial dairy operations.