A Pasteurella multocida strain affecting nulliparous heifers and calves in different ways

• Case study–- calves and heifers infected with Pasteurella multocida.
• Two disease scenarios investigated.
• One strain of P. multocida occupied different niches within the bovine host.
• One strain associated with two different disease scenarios.

Pasteurella multocida isolates from dairy cattle on a farm in Spain were associated with pneumonia of calves (six isolates) and mastitis of heifers (five isolates). The objective was to determine if the P. multocida isolates retrieved from both disease scenarios were the same strain or whether more than one strain was present. The isolates were identified by a species-specific polymerase chain (PCR) assay, serotyped by the Heddleston scheme and then typed by a number of molecular genotyping assays including multi-locus sequence typing (MLST). The 11 isolates were confirmed as P. multocida but failed to react with any of the 16 Heddleston antisera. The PCR targeting the genes associated with the lipopolysaccharide outer core biosynthesis locus assigned all the isolates to L3–the type that contains Heddleston serovars 3 and 4. The MLST analysis showed all isolates belonging to ST 79 within the clonal complex of ST13. Only one of the isolates showed a slight different profile by the repetitive extragenic palindromic PCR. The conclusion was that the same strain was associated with pneumonia in calves and mastitis in heifers.