Trueperella Pyogenes-Strain Diversity and Occurrence in Dairy Herds

Trueperella (T.) pyogenes is a mastitis-causing pathogen formerly known to cause severe clinical mastitis (CM), especially during the summer, leading to milk losses and low recovery rates. Unfortunately, its transmission behavior within herds is unclear. The diversity and occurrence of T. pyogenes were monitored to gain an initial insight into the infection transmission behavior of T. pyogenes in dairy herds and to lay a foundation for following targeted investigations. CM milk samples were collected from German herds, and one Swedish farm was sampled for isolates from subclinical mastitis. All in all, 151 T. pyogenes isolates from 16 herds were isolated, identified by MALDI TOF analysis and typed with RAPD PCR. Of these, 17 isolates originated from subclinical mastitis cases. We found that T. pyogenes mastitis occurred year-round, and clinical mastitis cases were caused by multiple strains (31 affected animals/28 strains). Instances of multiple cows being infected with the same T. pyogenes strain were rare and typically only involved a small number of animals at a time. However, if several quarters of a cow were affected, it was likely the same strain. Unlike clinical infections, subclinical T. pyogenes infections, in one investigated farm, harbored a dominant strain. Additionally, we found that T. pyogenes infections tended to persist and stay within a herd for a minimum of 7 months in the same or different cows.