Detection of Capsular Types in Klebsiella Pneumoniae Strains isolated from Bovine Mastitis

Mastitis is one of the most common diseases in dairy cows which causes irreparable damages to the livestock industry in Iran and other regions worldwide. Klebsiella pneumonia based on K capsular antigen include serotypes, such as K1, K2, K5, K54, and K57. The aim of this study was to detect this bacterium in clinical and subclinical mastitis cases of cows and determine its common capsular serotypes.

In this study, milk samples were collected from 100 lactating cows with mastitis from a large dairy farm in Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari in the second half of 2017. Klebsiella pneumonia strains were isolated after microbial culture and molecular confirmation. The presence of K capsular antigens in these isolates was assessed using Polymerase Chain Reaction method.

Out of 100 samples, 20 samples (20%) were found infected with Klebsiella pneumonia using microbial culture and 16S-23S ITS gene tracing. The frequency of capsular antigens K1, K2, K5, K54, and K57 were 0.8%, 2.4%, 0, 1.2%, and 0.4% respectively. Moreover,the capsular antigen K2 with a frequency of 2.4% and K5 with a frequency of 0% had the highest and lowest frequency, respectively. The data were analyzed using SPSS 21 AND EXCEL through the chi-square test with a 95% confidence interval.

According to the results, Klebsiella pneumonia bacteria had a low frequency in the samples of the present study. Therefore, it is hoped that the diagnosis and evaluation of these bacterial agents which lead to the effective development of mastitis control and prevent Klebsiella pneumonia by providing a national program, thereby reducing the costs of this disease.