**3. Specie differentiation**

While confirming a bacterial colony to be a staphylococcus or not, it is necessary to differential differentiate it from closest resembling bacteria named micrococcus

**Figure 2.** *Growth curve of Staphylococcus aureus within bovine aortic endothelial cells. Modified from [1].*

Staphylococcus aureus *and the Veterinary Medicine DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.100202*

and streptococcus species. The point that differentiates the Staphylococci from staphylococci is that staphylococci are mostly catalase-positive while the streptococci are mostly catalase-negative. Other tests of vital importance within the differentiation of the Staphylococcus species are hemolytic pattern, biochemical profiles, colonial appearance, and rRNA gene restriction patterns [2]. S. aureus and S. intermedius are often confused clinical cases of dogs and cats. Coagulasenegative staphylococci are ordinarily reserved for isolates from pure cultures. Their colonies are white, opaque and up to 4 mm in diameter, some are golden yellow and some have pigmented colonies. Sheep or ox blood agar presents alpha, beta, gamma, and delta hemolysis. Strains of the staphylococcus species are differentiated based on their capability of haemolysin production [1, 2].

The growth curve of *Staphylococcus aureus* within bovine aortic endothelial cells under optimal conditions is presented in **Figure 2**.
