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  Discussion on Research Summary: Do Goats get Strep mastitis from Horses?
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DrO

Posted on Friday, Jun 5, 2009 - 10:57 am:

Many of our members keep other livestock with their horses and occasionally ask are there any diseases they share and can transmit to each other. Here an investigation of an outbreak of Strep. equi subsp zooepidemicus mastitis was made to see if the organism responsible could have been the horses on the premises.

Though multiple strains were found in the equine feces they were distinct from that found in the goats suggesting a different origin. They concede the possibility that the goat mastitis strain was present in the horses and that they were just unable to isolate it. But at this time there is no evidence that goats and horses cross infect each other with the Strangles organism.
DrO

J Dairy Sci. 2009 Mar;92(3):943-51.

Epidemiological investigation of Streptococcus equi subspecies zooepidemicus involved in clinical mastitis in dairy goats.

Pisoni G, Zadoks RN, Vimercati C, Locatelli C, Zanoni MG, Moroni P.

Department of Veterinary Pathology, Hygiene and Public Health, University of Milan, 20133 Milan, Italy.

An outbreak of clinical mastitis was observed in dairy goats due to the zoonotic pathogen Streptococcus equi ssp. zooepidemicus. Affected goats were culled to prevent transmission of infection to other animals or humans. The objective of the study was to determine whether horses on the same farm were the source of the pathogen. Streptococcus equi ssp. zooepidemicus was obtained from milk of 10% of goats in the herd and from feces of 3 of 7 healthy horses that shared pasture and housing with the goats. Isolates of caprine and equine origin had identical biochemical profiles, including the ability to ferment sorbitol and lactose, which distinguishes S. equi ssp. zooepidemicus from S. equi ssp. equi. Sequencing of the 16S-23S intergenic spacer region and results from sodA-seeI multiplex PCR supported identification of isolates as S. equi ssp. zooepidemicus. Based on random amplified polymorphic DNA typing and roB and sodA sequencing, caprine isolates were indistinguishable from each other, but distinct from equine isolates. Further analysis of equine fecal samples showed that multiple strains of S. equi ssp. zooepidemicus can be present in a single sample or in sequential samples obtained from a single horse. Failure to detect the mastitis-causing strain in equine feces may indicate that horses were not the source of the mastitis outbreak in goats. Alternatively, the outbreak may be due to presence of multiple S. equi ssp. zooepidemicus strains in equine feces and a failure to detect all strains when analyzing a limited number of isolates per sample.
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