ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Vet. Sci.
Sec. Veterinary Infectious Diseases
Isolation, Identification, and Susceptibility Testing of Staphylococcus caprae from Dairy Goats with Mastitis to Antibiotics and Chinese Herbal Medicines
Provisionally accepted
Jie Luo1,2
Yiping Wang1,2
Wenya Zheng1,2Chaolong Xu1,2Jianhua Chen1,2Ben Liu1,2*Xiaoyue Wang1,2
Manxin Fang1,2- 1Yichun University, Yichun, China
- 2Yichun University Research Center for Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine and Animal Embryo Engineering Technology, Yichun, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Mastitis outbreaks in dairy goats at a farm in western Jiangxi Province, have recently imposed significant economic losses on farmers. This study aimed to identify the causative pathogen and implement targeted control measures for early disease eradication. Pathological autopsy was performed on diseased goats submitted for examination. Pathological mammary gland tissues and milk cistern fluid were collected aseptically for bacterial isolation and purification. The isolated pathogen was characterized through colony morphology observation, Gram staining, biochemical tests, and 16S rDNA gene sequencing. Pathogenicity was assessed using an animal challenge test in mice. In vitro antibacterial susceptibility testing was conducted using 30 Antibiotics (e.g., cefradine, cephalexin, cefuroxime), 18 Chinese herbal medicines (CHMs; e.g., Rhus chinensis (Galla Chinensis), Coptis chinensis (Chinese Goldthread), Punica granatum (Granati Pericarpium)), and 15 phytogenic extracts (e.g., Berberine, Gallic acid, Tannic acid). Results revealed the isolation of a Gram-positive bacterium from the diseased tissues. Biochemical profiling and 16S rDNA sequencing identified the isolate as Staphylococcus caprae. The animal challenge test confirmed the isolate's strong pathogenicity in mice. Susceptibility testing indicated that the isolate was susceptible to Antibiotics such as cefradine, cephalexin, cefuroxime, and ciprofloxacin, while showing the poorest susceptibility to penicillin among the tested antibiotics. Among the CHMs and phytogenic extracts, Rhus chinensis (Galla Chinensis), Coptis chinensis (Chinese Goldthread), Punica granatum (Granati Pericarpium), Berberine, Gallic acid and Tannic acid demonstrated superior antibacterial efficacy. This study provides multiple therapeutic and preventive options (CHMs, Antibiotics, phytogenic extracts) for mastitis control on this farm. It also offers valuable insights into the identification and treatment of mastitis in dairy goats, contributing to safeguarding goat health and ensuring dairy product safety.
Keywords: Dairy goats, Mastitis, Staphylococcus caprae, isolation and identification, pathogenicity, susceptibility testing
Received: 01 Sep 2025; Accepted: 17 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Luo, Wang, Zheng, Xu, Chen, Liu, Wang and Fang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Ben Liu, liubenres@163.com
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.