Frequency of reisolation of Staphylococcus aureus from multiple sequential milk samples

Bacterial cultures were performed on multiple sequential composite samples of milk from 1,172 cows in 9 dairy herds. If the initial diagnosis of Staphylococcus aureus infection was based on the first positive culture, an average of 37.8% of subsequent cultures on the same cows were negative for S aureus. However, if the initial diagnosis of S aureus infection was confirmed by 2 or 2 of 3 sequential positive cultures and any conversions from S aureus positive to negative were confirmed by 2 or 2 of 3 sequential negative cultures, then only 17.0% converted to a negative diagnosis. Conversion of cows from S aureus culture-positive to -negative varied between herds; 8.1 to 69% for single cultures and 0.0 to greater than 40% for confirmed cultures.