Understanding the Milk Microbiota.

The milk microbiota is an intriguing area of research because milk with no bacterial growth in culture was long thought to be sterile. Recent DNA sequencing techniques have been developed that do not require bacteria to be culturable, and DNA from new bacteria have been reported in milk from dairy cow mammary glands with or without mastitis. Methodologies and results vary among research groups, and not enough is known about the milk microbiota for the results to be used for diagnosis or prognosis of mastitis.