Corynebacterium bovis

Corynebacterium bovis is a pathogenic veterinary bacterium that causes mastitis and pyelonephritis in cattle.

C. bovis is a facultatively anaerobic Gram positive organism, characterized by non-encapsulated, non-sporulated, immobile, straight or curved rods with a length of 1 to 8 µm and width of 0.3 to 0.8 µm, which form ramified aggregations in culture (looking like "Chinese characters"). In mastitic infections C. bovis is spread from cow to cow most commonly through improper milking technique. However it is usually a mild infection resulting in elevated somatic cell count (SCC). The bacterium is sensitive to the majority of antibiotics, such as the penicillins, ampicillin, cephalosporins, quinolones, chloramphenicol, tetracyclines, cefuroxime and trimethoprim.