Limited genetic diversity of Aerococcus viridans strains isolated from clinical and subclinical cases of bovine mastitis in Slovakia.

The Aerococcus viridans isolates from bovine mastitis in Slovakia were isolated and characterized by classical microbiological and biochemical, and molecular techniques including IGS-PCR and rep-PCR, ARDRA and 16S rDNA gene sequencing. The substantial variability of antibiotic resistance patterns was observed. The majority of strains were resistant to beta-lactam antibiotics, the resistance to tetracycline was observed in 3 tested strains, resistance to lincomycin was found in 4 strains and practically all tested strains were sensitive to neomycin and ciprofloxacin. While variable at a phenotypic level, no significant genetic variability among A. viridans isolates was detected by molecular DNA based methods. The data obtained suggest that a few A. viridans strains spread among cow's population in Slovak farms.