Environmental Mastitis Flashcards
What is the economic impact of environmental impact compared to contagious mastitis?
- Environment mastitis causes losses of discarded/ non-saleable milk with clinical disease
- Contagious milk cause loss from decreased milk production in sub-clinical
What are common pathogens found in enviromental mastitis?
Common major pathogens - Coliform bacteria, Streptococci (not agalactiae)
Less common major bacteria - fungi/yeasts, algae (Prototheca)
Common minor pathogens- Staph sp. other than S. aureus
Where does environmental mastitis pathogens originate?
- Intestinal flora from feces
- Soil and water
- Skin/ other body sites
- Ubiquitous on farms
How do you control environmental mastitis in cows?
- Allow cows to lay down in clean, dry, comfortable stalls of proper length
- Rotate pastures
- Avoid overcrowding
- Remove manure frequently
- Have properly ventilated barns protected from environment
- Clip/ heat remove hair from udders
- Effective per-milking teat cleaning
- Regular machine evaluation
- Clean, dry post-milking environment
- Clean, dry calving area (ideally cleaned between calvings)
- Teat sealant
- Vaccinate against core LPS antigens –>
reduces severity(none againts) - Give good nutrition
What type of bedding do you want to use in cows to prevent environmental mastitis?
- Sand is preferable –> inorganic and comfortable
- Don’t use organic bedding –> supports more bacterial growth, more work for the farm
When does the incidence of environmental mastitis increase?
- Milk gland susceptible to mastitis during dry period
- Early infection is first 2 weeks, late is last 2 weeks
- Infection may not be clinical until after calving –> gland is sensitive during early lactation (periparturient immunosuppresion, increased milk yield, concurrent disease)
When is the milk gland more susceptible to mastitis: during dry-off or calving?
Both actually!
- Dry-off –> treat with antibiotics to prevent gram positive mastitis though many environmental pathogens are resistant
- Calving –> Antibiotic concentration from dry period has declined making gland susceptible to all environmental pathogens