VALIDATION OF A SAMPLING METHOD TO DETECT HEALTHY RABBIT STAPHYLOCOCCUS AUREUS CARRIERS

Improvement of zootechnical performance and reduction of the use of antimicrobial agents could be achieved by adopting infective pathology control strategies based on selection of specific pathogen-free breeders. Chronic staphylococcosis, mostly caused by highly virulent S. aureus strains classified within the mixed CV-C biotype and the 3A/3C/55/71 phagetype, offers an ideal eradication policy target because it has a low diffusivity among animals, but may cause serious health impairment and it is difficult to control due to drug resistance and lack of vaccines. The main risk for staphylococcosis introduction is purchase of healthy carriers. Therefore, selection of high virulence S. aureus free breeders by screening them for carriage and the subsequent culling of infected subjects to prevent entry of infected animals on farm level is the basis of an eradication policy. The identification of healthy carriers of high virulence S. aureus is currently based on cultivation of the micro-organism and its characterization using traditional bacteriological methods. Biomolecular methods to distinguish high and low pathogenic S. aureus have been recently described, but they need proper in field validation and are not yet available for rabbit S. aureus high pathogenic screening. The standardization of sampling protocols that meet the needs of both increased analytic sensibility and technical an