Isolation and Prevalence of Staphylococcus aureus from raw bovine milk samples in and around Thoothukudi District, Tamilnadu

In this study, investigation of the presence of Staphylococcus and determination of its prevalence and distribution, identification of Staphylococcus aureus and determination of their prevalence and distribution and characterization of the isolates in order to determine their ability in synthesizing coagulase from raw bovine milk samples were conducted from Sep 2015 - Mar 2016 in and around Thoothukudi District, Tamilnadu, South India. All the isolates were tested for the production of coagulase to determine their pathogenicity. Comparison of the prevalence of Coagulase Positive Staphylococci (CPS) showed a relatively higher CPS prevalence in south zones (78.43%) than other zones (70 - 77%). The high level of Staphylococcus isolate found raw milk samples in the present study represent a poor quality and public health risk to the consumer. Hence, raw milk intended for human consumption must be subjected to pasteurization or heat treatment at least equivalent to pasteurization temperature order to guarantee the quality of these highly popular products in these areas in order to decrease the risk of staphylococcal food poisoning.