An association between milk and slime increases biofilm production by bovine Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract

The present study demonstrated that skim-milk medium and slime production are two factors that together influence biofilm formation by bovine strains of S. aureus. A predominance of bacteria belonging to agr group II was observed, and bacteria from agr group III showed the highest proportion of biofilm producers. The majority of bacteria characterized in this study formed biofilm in milk, which suggests that biofilm formation has an important role in the virulence of S. aureus isolated from bovine intramammary infections.