SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Diagnostic techniques for identification of pathogens in fresh milk from dairy herds with high bulk milk somatic cell count

By Dr Theo Kotze

A private veterinary practitioner wants to identify diagnostic techniques that are practical, commercially available, reliable, rapid, and cost-effective to diagnose milk-borne pathogens in dairy herds with high Bulk Milk Somatic Cell Counts (BMSCC). To enable this, a systematic review was done to identify diagnostic techniques to diagnose pathogen(s) in dairy herds with high BMSCC. .  The criteria to identify the diagnostic methods included commercial, rapid, and cost-effective methods with high diagnostic sensitivity and specific for aerobic mastitogenic, zoonotic, foodborne, antimicrobial resistant and state-controlled disease pathogens in fresh milk intended for human consumption. A model using practical methods to identify these pathogens included somatic cell count (SSC) screening, phenotypical culturing/isolation/biochemically identification, anti-microbial resistance evaluation together with conventional PCR and multiplex real-time quantitative PCR. 

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