Identifying Vaccine Targets for Bovine Mastitis

Bovine mastitis in dairy cows causes a wide variety of issues, including economic distress, animal discomfort, and the potential for antibiotic resistant strains of bacteria. Species such as Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus uberis use various virulence factors to colonize and thrive in host organisms. Through implementing polymerase chain reaction techniques in a series of S. aureus strains, it can be determined which such factors are highly conserved throughout the species. The genes isdA, isdC, isdH, map, flbA, hla, and esxA were studied, with the highest conservation rates observed in isdA, esxA, and flbA. These genes show potential for becoming the target for vaccines, to prevent bovine mastitis from originally occurring in the future. Cloning processes were also used to discover which antigens serve as potential vaccine sites in S. uberis, as mtuA and an unspecified fibronectin binding protein were examined