[Staphylococcus aureus variety hominis in a cattle herd]

A site-linked hominis variety of Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from a cattle herd. The find coincided with accumulated occurrence of clinical mastitis in cows and the affliction of one milker with a nose furuncle. The origin of the strain was not elucidated. The same strain had been isolated throughout three years of observation from clinical and subclinical mastitis as well as from chronic udder affection of cows, but no extraordinary accumulation of clinically manifest mastitis had been observed. The hominis site variety was quite rare among Staphylococcus aureus strains isolated from other cow herds. Enterotoxin formation was recorded from strains of the hominis site variety and from strains which could not be coordinated with any other of the known site varieties and fell under crystal-violet Type A. No enterotoxin formation was recordable from the strains of the bovis variety. The same applied to the group of staphylococci of crystal-violet Type C which could not be coordinated either with any known site variety and which is assumed to have originated from the hominis site variety. The above findings do not support any conclusion as to whether the cows had been infected by the milker or vice versa.