Influence of sampling time on bacteriological diagnosis of goat intramammary infection

Intramammary infection in seven commercial goat herds was studied using premilking and postmilking samples for purposes as bacteriological diagnosis. Using a positive result on both premilking and postmilking samples as the definitive diagnosis, we compared the efficacy of single samples collected either premilking or postmilking. With this aim, 2268 bacteriological culture results were compared. The kappa values (0.60) showed moderate agreement between the two samples. Specificity and positive predictive value were higher for postmilking samples than for premilking samples. Specificity of postmilking samples was 99.4% for coagulase-negative staphylococci, 99.9% for Gram-negative bacilli, 100% for streptococci, 99.9% for corynebacteria and 100% for mixed cultures. Premilking samples specificity was 96.6, 99.5, 99.7, 99.8 and 99.8%, respectively. False positive diagnoses were more frequent for premilking samples. The results suggest that postmilking samples should be used to diagnosis of goat intramammary infection.