In recent years, huge amounts of antibiotics have been administered to farm animals, and as a result, residues of these antibiotics can accumulate in livestock products and, once consumed, may be transmitted to humans. Farm animals’ antibiotic treatment may therefore present a risk for consumers health, especially for children and adolescents. In children, the immune system is not fully developed, and thus, they are more susceptible than adults to resistant bacteria. A dietary exposure assessment was conducted on veterinary antibiotics found in raw pork meat among children and adolescents in Cyprus, since pork is the most consumed red meat in Cypriot population. The study was based on the results of the occurrence of 45 residual antibiotics in raw pork meat samples in Cyprus between 2012 and 2017 in combination with data on the consumption of pork meat on children and adolescents taken from the latest demographic report in Cyprus. Estimated daily intake (EDI) values of veterinary antibiotics for children aged 6–9 years old, were higher compared to EDI values for adolescents aged 10–17 years old. The percentage ratio of the estimated daily intake to the acceptable daily intake for all the veterinary antibiotic residues was less than 5.6. The results indicate that antibiotic residues in pork meat of inland production are below the acceptable daily intake and are of low risk to human health related to the exposure of antibiotics. Nevertheless, continuous exposure to low levels of antibiotic residues in respect to age vulnerability should be of a great concern.

One hundred and seventy-seven (177) bulk tank milk samples were analyzed with a commercially available real-time polymerase chain reaction kit and 11 (6.21%), 41 (23.16%), and 58 (32.77%) tested positive for Mycoplasma bovis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Streptococcus agalactiae, respectively. Statistical analysis revealed a significant relationship between the presence of S. aureus and S. agalactiae. Enumeration of somatic cells was performed in the same samples by flow cytometry. The somatic cell counts were found higher in S. aureus and S. agalactiae positive samples. No association was found between M. bovis presence and somatic cells counts. Low internal assay control Ct values were found to be related with high somatic cell counts. Noticeably, this is the first report for the presence of M. bovis in Cyprus. Therefore, its presence was confirmed by bulk tank milk culture, conventional PCR, and next generation sequencing. Furthermore, M. bovis was typed with multilocus sequencing typing and was allocated to sequence type 29 (ST 29). Real-time PCR in bulk tank milk samples is a useful tool to detect mammary infections, especially for neglected pathogens such as M. bovis.