Development of a rapid cow-side bacteriophage-based diagnostic method for the detection of Staphylococcus aureus mastitis

牛乳腺炎是乳房的炎症性病症，通常由奶牛中的细菌感染引起。最难对付的细菌病原体之一，负责牛乳腺炎，是金黄色葡萄球菌。这种情况具有严重的经济和社会影响。由于兽医和劳动力成本增加以及牛奶产量和质量下降等因素造成的间接和直接成本，在社会方面，由于公共卫生的菌株，以及农场中抗生素的过度使用，导致抗菌素耐药性问题增加，对人类健康和农业产生负面影响。目前的诊断和治疗方法需要改进，因为这些方法并不总是直截了当的。在治疗方面，由于很多时候导致感染的细菌菌株难以确定，因此使用强效广谱抗生素，从长远来看，这会增加抗生素耐药性的严重问题，即细菌病原体对抗生素的耐药性，对公众健康构成威胁。因此，迫切需要开发一种牛乳腺炎的快速牛侧检测方法，这将为S.金黄色乳腺炎我们将重点关注金黄色葡萄球菌感染的检测，为此，我们将使用针对金黄色葡萄球菌的特异性噬菌体作为诊断方法的基础。噬菌体是对细菌宿主具有很强特异性的病毒。我们将对这些噬菌体进行基因改造，使其具有生物发光性，这样，在测试样品中存在金黄色葡萄球菌的情况下，就会产生发光。我们将进一步喷雾干燥这些粉末，将其转化为粉末，可以很容易地分配到各个小瓶中，并形成诊断测试的基础。生物发光噬菌体将被优化，并将使用来自奶牛的液体和粉末形式的生物样品在现场进行进一步测试，以确保其准确性和灵敏度。总之，我们的目标是发展一种快速的牛侧噬菌体为基础的诊断方法，金黄色葡萄球菌牛乳房炎。

Bovine mastitis is an inflammatory condition of the udder, typically caused by bacterial infections in dairy cattle. One of the hardest bacterial pathogens to tackle, responsible for bovine mastitis, is Staphylococcus aureus. This condition has severe economic and societal implications. Economic due to both indirect and direct costs that arise from factors including increased veterinary and labour costs and reduced milk yield and quality. Societal, due to the strains placed on public health, with the overuse of antibiotics in farms, which results to increase in the problem of antimicrobial resistance with negative effects in human health and agriculture. The current methods of diagnosis and treatment require improvement, as these are not always straightforward. In terms of the treatment and because many times the bacterial strain responsible for the infection is hard to be determined, strong broad-spectrum antibiotics are used, which in the long run increase the serious problem of antimicrobial resistance, that is the resistance of bacterial pathogens to antibiotics, posing threats on the public health.It is therefore an urgent need to develop a rapid cow-side test for Bovine mastitis, which would provide a fundamental change in the control and treatment of S. aureus mastitis. We will focus on the detection of infection caused by Staphylococcus aureus.For this purpose, we will use bacteriophages, specific for targeting Staphylococcus aureus, as the basis of the diagnostic method. Bacteriophages are viruses with great specificity to their bacterial host. We will genetically modify these bacteriophages to be made bioluminescent, so that in the presence of Staphylococcus aureus in the samples tested, luminescence will be produced. We will further spray dry these phages to convert those into a powder, which can be easily distributed to individual vials and form the basis of the diagnostic test. The bioluminescent bacteriophages will be optimised and will be further be tested in the field, using biological samples from cows, both in their liquid and powder format, in order to ensure their accuracy and sensitivity. Overall, we aim to develop a rapid cow-side bacteriophage-based diagnostic method for Staphylococcus aureus bovine mastitis.