Identificación Molecular del Agente Etiológico de la Mastitis Bovina de Muestras Provenientes de Unidades Productoras del Cantón Cayambe Provincia de Pichincha

General objective Identify the microorganisms that cause bovine mastitis in samples from production units of the Cayambe canton, using molecular techniques. Justification In epidemiology it is important to identify pathogens at a taxonomic level of strains or races, determine the cause of the infectious outbreak, recognize particularly virulent strains and detect the source of infection (Rodríguez, et al., 2009). Classic microbiological identification methods include culture in appropriate pre-enrichment and enrichment media, isolation in selective media and subsequent confirmation through biochemical, morphological and/or serological tests, however, obtaining results can take days or weeks and, additionally, , present low sensitivity (Palomino & González, 2014). Many of these species are identified only at the genus level and do not allow differentiation between other potentially infectious strains that could be the origin of mastitis; molecular identification makes it possible to reach adequate taxonomic levels for epidemiology studies (Cardona, 2015). Among the molecular techniques developed for the detection of microorganisms is the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR), which is an efficient method for the identification of pathogenic species that could be difficult to detect by conventional methods (Ruiz et al. 2013 ). Diagnostics based on the PCR technique can offer significant advantages over other diagnostics due to its speed and sensitivity when used for the detection of mastitis pathogens, since the method is aimed at the recognition of the DNA of a specific etiological agent (Mahmmod, 2013). .