A porcine model was used to examine the potential of human and porcine Staphylococcus aureus isolates to induce haematogenously spread osteomyelitis. Pigs were inoculated in the right femoral artery with one of the following S. aureus strains: S54F9 (from a porcine lung abscess; n = 3 animals), NCTC-8325-4 (a laboratory strain of human origin; n = 3 animals) and UAMS-1 (a human osteomyelitis isolate; n = 3 animals). Two pigs were sham inoculated with saline. At 11 or 15 days post infection the animals were scanned by computed tomography before being killed and subjected to necropsy examination. Osteomyelitis lesions were present in the right hind limb of all pigs inoculated with strain S54F9 and in one pig inoculated with strain NCTC-8325-4. Microscopically, there was extensive loss of bone tissue with surrounding granulation tissue. Sequestrated bone trabeculae were intermingled with colonies of S. aureus as demonstrated immunohistochemically. By peptide nucleic acid fluorescence in situ hybridization bacterial aggregates were demonstrated to be embedded in an opaque matrix, indicating that the bacteria had formed a biofilm. Development of experimental osteomyelitis was therefore dependent on the strain of bacteria inoculated and on the formation of a biofilm.