Udder Health Flashcards
Can bacteria spread through the udder quarters?
- NO
- Bacteria must enter through the streak canal of each quarter
- Exception - Mycoplasma organisms
What is required for mastitis to occur?
- Bacteria
- Either Animal susceptibility or Environmental/management issues
What are the common pathogens that cause mastitis?
- Contagious
- Staph aureus
- Mycoplasma bovis
- Strep agalactiae - very rare in the US
- Environmental
-
Coliforms (E. coli, Klebsiella, Enterobacter sp. )
- Up to 40% of cases, and 25% of cows in well-managed herds are dx with coliform mastitis anually
- Environmental streps: Strep uberis, Strep dysgalactiae
- Other gram negative - Serratia, Proteus, Raoultella
-
clinical mastitis due to gram- is inbersly related to bulk tank somatic cell count
- BTSCC⇣ = G-⇡
-
clinical mastitis due to gram- is inbersly related to bulk tank somatic cell count
-
Coliforms (E. coli, Klebsiella, Enterobacter sp. )
Why are cases of mastitis moving from contagious to environmental causes?
- Due to industry’s adoption of mastitis control program
- Post milk teat disinfection
- Universal dry-cow therapy
- Treatment SOP for clinical cases
- Routine/regular milking machine maintenance
- Culling chronic mastitis cows
How do infections occur with contagious vs environmental pathogens?
- Contagious:
- able to colonize and live within the udder
- Infection occurs during the milking process
- Environmental:
- Are eliminated rapidly once inside the udder
- Infection occurs between milking
- can occur during with dirty udders / poor machine function
How is environmental mastitis managed?
- Proper human milking procedures/training/monitoring
- Bedding
- Manure
- Environmental moisture
- Stall design
- Animal density
What are the signs of clinical mastitis?
- Abnormal milk (flakes, clots, etc)
- Abnormal secretions
- Quarter(s) that are:
- red, swollen, or painful
- Fever
- Anorexia
- Lethargy
- Rumen stasis
How is clinical mastitis severity scored? why?
- Used to monitor how quickly/slowly milkers are recognizing mastitis
- If 20% or more of the mastitis cases =score 3, the observational intensity or case definitions need to be re-visited
How is a subclinical mastitis identified?
- California mastitis test (CMT)
- negative = 100,000
- Trace = 300,000
- 1 = 900,000
- 2 = 2.7mil
- 3 = 8.1mil
- Electrolytic conductivity
- in line or handheld (MasTek)
- Resistance of milk to electric current
- Mastitis: Lactose and K decrease, Na and Cl increase
- Somatic Cell Count
- Raw SCC >200,000/ml = infection
- Linear score > 4.0-4.2 = infection
How is Bacterial load at milking reduced?
- Pre-dip - control environmental mastitis
- reduces bacteria load on the teat at time of milking
- Post-dip - control of contagious mastitis
- Removes milk film (lessens nutrients available for bacterial growth & reduces the number of bacteria that can colonize the teat skin between milking)
- Doesn’t last long enough between milkings to assist with environmental mastitis
What teat dips are out there?
- Good universal: 1% iodine with 10% emollients (glycerin, etc)
- Chlorine
- Acidified sodium chlorite
- sodium hypochlorite
- chlorhexidine
- Hydrogen peroxide
What vaccines exist for mastitis?
- Gram Negative core vaccines:
- E. coli - J5, Mastiguard, JVac
- Klebsiella - Klebvax, Vaccon
- labeled for 2-3 doses per year
- Anticipated Effectiveness:
- reduces severity of gram negative infections
- Likely does not reduce infection risk
- Staph Aureus - Lysigin
- current research - SA vax increases spontaneous cure rates
What are the challenges for Mastitis vaccines?
- Milk dilution of immune cells
- Antibody concentration in milk is much lower than serum
- Fat and casein reduce effectiveness of immune cells
- Milk is an excellent growth media for bacteria
- SA microabscesses, fibrin deposition, intracellular life
When should mastitis vaccinations be used?
In herds that are performing the 5 step prevention program ad are concentrating on environmental management
What is a teat sealant?
- Used to prevent bacteria from entering the streak canal
- Applied when animals go dry to prevent dry cow/fresh cow mastitis
- Types:
- External - silicone/latex based, non-antibiotic
- Internal - bismuth based, non-antibiotic
Should teat sealant and/or antibiotics be used at dry off?
- internal teat sealants are economically worthwhile
- can estimate advantage/disadvantage, cost of mastitis case (production loss, treatment, saleable milk loss, increase culling vs sealant cost)
- Blanket Antibiotic treatment is economically worthwhile
- also aids in curing infections existing at dryof
- Select Antibiotic treatment:
- cows with no count >200,000 in the last 3 months in low SCC herds do not require antibiotic treatments at dryoff