Anotace:
The aim of this work is to identify the spectrum, frequency and antimicrobial resistance of bacterial pathogens occurring in sheep dairy herds in Slovakia. Of a total of 310 samples of sheep's milk coming from three breeds during two seasons (2017 and 2018), at least one potential pathogen was isolated from 102 samples (32.9%). A total of 131 microbial isolates were isolated. The most represented species were coagulase negative staphylococci CoNS (75.6%), followed by Streptococcus agalactiae (10.7%), Staphylococcus aureus (6.9%), Streptococcus dysgalactiae (4.6%), Escherichia coli (1.5%), Enterococcus faecium (1.5%), and others (Streptococcus uberis, Streptococcus parauberis, Candida sp., Klebsiella sp., moulds) below 1%. A total of 99 isolates of CoNS were tested for antimicrobial resistance. Of these, 63.6% were resistant to at least one antibiotic. A total of 24.2% of the tested isolates were resistant to 3 groups of antimicrobials simultaneously (multi-drug resistance). The highest resistance was observed to lincomycin (57.6%) and neomycin (36.4%), the lowest to sulfamethoxazolum+trimethoprim (0%) and enrofloxacin (3.0%). Based on the results of this work, it is possible to assume a similar spectrum of pathogens and their antimicrobial resistance described in the literature also within the Slovak sheep farms focused on milk production.