Streptococcus uberis 0140J

Gram-positive nonmotile coccus. Streptococcus uberis is commensal at many body sites and has been isolated from the skin, gut, tonsils and genital tract of asymptomatic cattle. It can infect the bovine mammary gland where it causes mastitis, an inflammatory disease. Infection with S. uberis is one of the major causes of bovine mastitis worldwide and the most common cause in the UK. S.uberis is often detected in feces and can also be isolated from the environment (pasture, bedding materials) populated by cattle. However the organism survives in the environment for less than 4 weeks. It has been placed within the pyogenic cluster, a large grouping containing the human pathogens S.pyogenes, the zoonotic S.agalactiae and a number of animal pathogens occupying diverse ecological niches including S.equi and S.canis.S. uberis strain 0140J represents a typical UK isolate in terms of its ancestry. It is among the most thoroughly characterized strains that is pathogenic for both the lactating and non-lactating bovine mammary gland, environments that are quite different. It encodes a variety of metabolic options useful for benefiting from its various habitats; some of them have probably been acquired by horizontal gene transfer. It encodes a lower number of mobile genetic elements than other pyogenic streptococci (adapted from PubMed 19175920). (HAMAP: STRU0)