Human milk is notoriously difficult to culture, often mastitis is interstitial and is NOT IN the ducts, often the anti-bacterial constituants of human milk kills off any bacteria before it can be cultured, and also it is easy to have the specimin contaminated by either improper handling or simply getting a culture of epidermal bacteria, which can be VERY misleading.
Breastfeeding and Human Lactation by Riordan has some evidence on why NOT to culture human milk, you may want to look there for references.
Good luck.
Mary Jozwiak
Private Practice
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