The effect of staphylococcal mastitis including resistant strains on serum procalcitonin, neopterin, acute phase response and stress biomarkers in Holstein dairy cows

Wael El-Deeb; Mahmoud Fayez; Naser Alhumam; Ibrahim Elsohaby; Sayed A Quadri; Hermine Mkrtchyan

doi:10.7717/peerj.11511

The effect of staphylococcal mastitis including resistant strains on serum procalcitonin, neopterin, acute phase response and stress biomarkers in Holstein dairy cows

PeerJ. 2021 May 31:9:e11511. doi: 10.7717/peerj.11511. eCollection 2021.

Authors

Wael El-Deeb^{1

2}, Mahmoud Fayez^{3

4}, Naser Alhumam⁵, Ibrahim Elsohaby^{6

7}, Sayed A Quadri⁸, Hermine Mkrtchyan⁹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Hofuf, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Internal Medicine, Infectious Diseases and Fish Diseases, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt.
³ Al Ahsa Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory, Ministry of Environment, Water and Agriculture, Al-Hofuf, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Veterinary Serum and Vaccine Research Institute, Ministry of Agriculture, Cairo, Egypt.
⁵ Department of Microbiology and parasitology, College of Veterinary Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Ahsa, Al-Hofuf, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Animal Medicine, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt.
⁷ Department of Health Management, Atlantic Veterinary College, University of Prince Edward Island, Charlottetown, Canada.
⁸ Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Medicine, King Faisal University, Al-Hofuf, Al-Ahsa, Saudi Arabia.
⁹ School of Biomedical Sciences, University of West London, London, United Kingdom.

Abstract

Staphylococcal mastitis (SM) is a frequent disease in the dairy cattle that is costly to treat. This study aimed to investigate the alterations in the levels of procalcitonin (PCT), neopterin (NPT), haptoglobin (HP), serum amyloid A (SAA), proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-8, TNF-α, IF-γ) and oxidative stress (OS) biomarkers in Holstein dairy cows with SM under field conditions. In addition, we also evaluated the role of examined biomarkers in disease pathogenesis and their use as diagnostic biomarkers for the disease in dairy cows. Fifty-three dairy cows with SM, including those with infections caused by Staphylococcus aureus (n = 42) and methicillin resistant S. aureus (MRSA) (n = 11) were selected for this study. In addition, 20 healthy dairy cows were enrolled as a control group. Higher serum levels of PCT, NP, IL-1β, IL-8, TNF-α, IF-γ, HP and SAA and a state of OS was detected in SM group in comparison with the controls. Moreover, the levels of all examined biomarkers in mastitic cows with S. aureus when compared with those infected with MRSA was not significantly different. All examined biomarkers demonstrated a significant degree of discrimination between SM cows and healthy controls (the area under the curve (AUC) ranged from 83.6 for SAA to 100 for PCT). Our study showed that SM in dairy cows was associated with substantial changes in serum PCT, NPT, Acute phase proteins (APPs), proinflammatory cytokines, and OS levels. This study demonstrates that clinical examination in tandem with quantification of PCT, NPT, APPs and cytokines, OS biomarkers could be a useful assessment tool for SM in dairy cows.

Keywords: Biomarkers; Bovine mastitis; Cytokines; Haptoglobin; Neopterin; Procalcitonin; Serum amyloid; Staphylococcus aureus.

Grants and funding

This work is supported by the Deputyship for Research & Innovation, Ministry of Education in Saudi Arabia (No. 23). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.