Özgür ÇELEBİ, Fatih BÜYÜK, Mustafa Reha COŞKUN, Mitat ŞAHİN

An atypical localization of Bacillus anthracis in a cow’s milk and udder

A 6-year-old Simental-Swiss Brown cross-bred cow, which aborted in the first trimester of the gestation and involuntarily presented anthrax bacilli around the udder, was subjected to this study. The cow was vaccinated with an attenuated anthrax vaccine (Bacillus anthracis 34 F2) 6 months ago and had normal physical examination findings. Samples taken 10 days after the abortion were representative of all possible spaces that could carry the bacteria such as milk, blood, environment, and swabs from rectum, udder and tits of an infected cow. Microbiological examination was carried out by staining the smears with Azure and in vitro culture of the samples on some enriched and selective media such as 7% sheep blood agar (SBA), Brain Heart Infusion (BHI) Broth media with 7% sheep blood, and polymyxin-lysozyme-ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid-thallous acetate (PLET) agar. On a molecular basis, the virulence plasmid-targeted PCR analysis of the isolates was performed. In addition, MLVA-8 and MLVA-25 typing of B. anthracis isolates were conducted. Upon the isolation of B. anthracis with a concentration of 6 × 102 cfu/mL in milk sample and different subtypes obtained from the isolates by MLVA-8 and MLVA-25 typing, the present study enables us to instantiate the presence and unusual spread of bacteria around the udder of cows.

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