Evaluation of Petrifilm for the isolation of Staphylococcus aureus from milk samples

Four experiments were conducted to evaluate the Petrifilm Staph Express Count plate (3M, Minneapolis, MN) for diagnosis of mastitis caused by Staphylococcus aureus. The objective of experiment 1 was to determine the sensitivity of Petrifilm compared with results of standard and augmented microbiological techniques, and the objective of experiment 2 was to compare microbiological results of composite and quarter milk samples processed using Petrifilm. Experiment 3 was conducted to determine the specificity of the Petrifilm method based on different interpretation parameters, and the objective of experiment 4 was to determine the repeatability of reading Petrifilm Staph Express plates. Results of standard microbiological techniques used for experiments 1 and 2 were compared with results of samples preprocessed using centrifugation or preincubation. The prevalence of recovery of Staph. aureus from milk samples processed using Petrifilm was significantly greater than the prevalence of milk samples processed using standard microbiological techniques. The sensitivity of isolation of Staph. aureus was 65.6, 75.0, 84.4, and 87.5% for standard, centrifugation, incubation, and Petrifilm methods, respectively. The occurrence of a distinct pink zone surrounding a colony was highly specific for Staph. aureus, and the specificity was 98.5 and 96.0% for experiments 3 and 4, respectively. The use of a weak pink zone to diagnose Staph. aureus resulted in a high rate of false-positive results. The interpretation of results of Petrifilm Staph Express was associated with the person that read the plates. Results from all 4 experiments indicate potential for the Petrifilm products as a diagnostic tool in some herd situations when Staph. aureus is the pathogen of interest. Results also indicate the need for standardization of interpretive criteria for personnel working with the products.