Invited review: Mastitis Escherichia coli strains—Mastitis-associated or mammo-pathogenic?

Abstract

Bovine mastitis remains a major concern for dairy farmers, mainly because of its effect on the economy of their activity and on animal welfare. Because Escherichia coli is considered a major mastitis pathogen, the diversity of E. coli strains isolated from mastitis cases has been studied for decades, with the aim to discover new ways to fight this infection. With the recent advances in whole-genome sequencing, a detailed view of the peculiarities of mastitis E. coli strains has emerged. This review aims to bring together the knowledge garnered over the years with the more recent results of whole-genome analyses. Whereas the concept of a mammary pathogenic E. coli has been proposed, because a common set of virulence genes cannot be identified among mastitis E. coli strains, we prefer the use of mastitis-associated E. coli (MAEC), with MAEC being more an “ecotype” rather than a “pathotype.” Indeed, data available so far suggest that a common feature of MAEC would rather be an enrichment in fitness capabilities that makes them well-suited for survival and rapid adaptation to changing biotopes in the mammary gland, which we qualify as intramammary ecotopes.