Bovine mastitis is a polymicrobial disease requiring a polydiagnostic approach

Bovine mastitis, an inflammation of the udder, is associated with increases in milk somatic cell count usually resulting from bacterial infection. We analysed 50 mastitic milk samples via cultivation, 16S rRNA sequencing and a combination of the two (culturomics) to define the complete microbial content of the milk. Most samples contained over 10,000 cfu mL−1 total bacterial counts including isolates that were haemolysin positive (n = 36). Among...