Characterization of staphylococci isolated from goats. 2. Differentiation from human strains: fibrinolytic activities and beta-haemolysin production.

Thirty-six out of 120 isolates of coagulase-positive (c.p.) and coagulase-negative (c.n.) staphylococci isolated from clinically healthy and sick goats were characterized to be of animal origin on the basis of beta-haemolysin production and not a fibrinolysin (Minett, 1936; Elek and Levy, 1950; Marandon and Oeding, 1966), although the specific animal reservoir could not be determined. There was a correlation between beta-haemolysin production on 7 per cent human blood agar and 7 per cent sheep blood agar. "hot-cold" lysis phenomenon (Buxton and Fraser, 1977) was observe in 7.5 per cent of the isolates. Isolates characterized show single and multiple antibiotic resistance (Adegoke, 1981).