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A Live Bio-Therapeutic for Mastitis, Containing Lactococcus lactis DPC3147 With Comparable Efficacy to Antibiotic Treatment
Kitching, Michael Mathur, Harsh Flynn, James Byrne, Noel Dillon, Pat Sayers, Riona Rea, Mary Hill, Colin Ross, R. Paul
Kitching, Michael
Mathur, Harsh
Flynn, James
Byrne, Noel
Dillon, Pat
Sayers, Riona
Rea, Mary
Hill, Colin
Ross, R. Paul
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2019-09-27
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Kitching M, Mathur H, Flynn J, Byrne N, Dillon P, Sayers R, Rea MC, Hill C and Ross RP (2019) A Live Bio-Therapeutic for Mastitis, Containing Lactococcus lactis DPC3147 With Comparable Efficacy to Antibiotic Treatment. Front. Microbiol. 10:2220. https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2019.02220
Abstract
Bovine mastitis is an ongoing significant concern in the dairy and agricultural industry
resulting in substantial losses in milk production and revenue. Among the predominant
etiological agents of bovine mastitis are Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus uberis,
Streptococcus dysgalactiae, and Escherichia coli. Currently, the treatment of choice for
bovine mastitis involves the use of commercial therapeutic antibiotic formulations such
as TerrexineTM, containing both kanamycin and cephalexin. Such antibiotics are regularly
administered in more than one dose resulting in the withholding of milk for processing for
a number of days. Here, we describe the optimization of a formulation of Lactococcus
lactis DPC3147, that produces the two-component bacteriocin lacticin 3147, in a liquid
paraffin-based emulsion (formulation hereafter designated ‘live bio-therapeutic’) for the
first time and compare it to the commercial antibiotic formulation TerrexineTM, with a
view to treating cows with clinical/sub-clinical mastitis. Critically, in a field trial described
here, this ‘ready-to-use’ emulsion containing live L. lactis DPC3147 cells exhibited
comparable efficacy to TerrexineTM when used to treat mastitic cows. Furthermore, we
found that the L. lactis cells within this novel emulsion-based formulation remained viable
for up to 5 weeks, when stored at 4, 22, or 37◦C. The relative ease and cost-effective
nature of producing this ‘live bio-therapeutic’ formulation, in addition to its enhanced
shelf life compared to previous aqueous-based formulations, indicate that this product
could be a viable alternative therapeutic option for bovine mastitis. Moreover, the singledose
administration of this ‘live bio-therapeutic’ formulation is a further advantage,
as it can expedite the return of the milk to the milk pool, in comparison to some
commercial antibiotics. Overall, in this field trial, we show that the live bio-therapeutic
formulation displayed a 47% cure rate compared to a 50% cure rate for a commercial
antibiotic control, with respect to curing cows with clinical/sub-clinical mastitis. The
study suggests that a larger field trial to further demonstrate efficacy is warranted.