LATEST TRENDS IN THE TREATMENT AND CONTROL OF MASTITIS IN DAIRY ANIMALS
Dr Deependra singh shekhawat,
Ex-Research scientist cum Technical head,( North,) AMUL, India.
Mastitis classically is defined as inflammation of the mammary gland which arises in response to injury for the purpose of destroying or neutralizing the infectious agents and to prepare the way for healing and return to normal function. This is one of the most costly diseases of dairy cattle resulting in the reduction of milk yield and quality. Current annual economic losses due to mastitis in India have been estimated to be Rs. 7165.51 crore that include Rs. 4151.16 crore and Rs. 3014.35 crore due to subclinical and clinical mastitis, respectively. The average incidence of subclinical mastitis has been found to be 49% in cows and 28% in buffaloes. Similarly, clinical mastitis is prevalent in 7% of cows and 4% buffaloes. Besides this, 17% of the cows and 8% of buffaloes have been suffering from various udder and teat lesions such as udder/teat warts, bovine ulcerative mammilitis, udder impetigo and teat chaps etc. These lesions pre-dispose the animal to mastitis and cause a great discomfort at milking and hence markedly decrease the milk yield. Subclinical mastitis though in apparent causes 10-25% loss in milk production whereas in clinical mastitis there may be total loss of milk. Besides this, presence of mastitis causative organisms and antibiotic residues in milk following therapy of mastitis poses a major threat to the consumer health. Another important and inevitable fact is the adverse effects of mastitis on the compositional and keeping quality of milk and milk products. Mastitis results in increase in the somatic cell count (SCC) and bacterial load of milk. The European Union has set up a threshold of 400, 000 cells/ml of milk from healthy quarter of a cow. The high SCC in mastitis milk has lipolytic effect on fat and there is increased tendency for rancidity of milk and milk products. Also, the mastitis milk with total bacterial count of more than 100 000 cfu/ml could release hydrolytic enzymes, which spoil the milk and milk products. It has been also observed that mastitis milk inhibits the growth of starter bacteria and results in decreased cheese production.
ETIOLOGY OF DISEASE —-
The disease is mainly caused by bacterial organisms, which are frequently present in the close vicinity of animals. The causative agents are categorized into two groups; the contagious organisms such as Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactiae which frequently present on teat and udder skin of animal, and transmitted form one animal to another animal at the time of milking through milking utensils, milker’ s hands and cups of milking machine. Te other group comprised environmental organisms such as coliforms and Streptococcus uberis, which are frequently present in dung, animal bedding, manure, soil, feed stuffs, uterine discharges and urine etc., may be transmitted to animal at any time, even in-between the milkings.
1.Per Acute mastitis:—–
Symptoms develop within 8 to 12 hours. Often follows after calving.
a. High fever (103 to 105oF), hurried respirations.
b. Don’t eat fodder and may not drink water.
c. Severe drop in the milk yield, animal can go dry.
d. Animal is quite weak, may lie down.
e. Affected quarter swollen, quite hot, painful and very hard.
f. Milk is watery sometimes blood tinged.
g. Pupil of the eye dilated, sunken eyes, may show severe diarrhea.
f. Feet and ears can become cold; animal may die between 12 to 24 hours.
2. Acute Mastitis:
Within a day Mastitic udder becomes quite red
a. High fever (103 to 105oF), shivers, hurried respirations.
b. Don’t eat fodder and may not drink water.
c. Severe drop in the milk yield, animal may go dry.
d. Animal is quite weak.
e. Affected quarter swollen, quite hot, painful and hard.
f. In the beginning milk is watery, turns to yellow, scum forms, and may have pus.
3. Clinical mastitis:
a. Fever (103 to 104oF), may be noticed or not.
b. Eats less fodder, but drinks water.
c. Drop in the milk yield.
d. Animal is apparently healthy.
e. Affected quarter apparently normal.
f. First strips of milk with flaky particles, watery sometimes blood tinged.
4. Chronic Mastitis:
a. Repeated attacks. No fever.
b. Animal will be eating and drinking water.
c. Gradual drop in the milk yield.
d. Udder looses normal softness and becomes hard
e. Milk can curdle, or sticky or has pus.
5. Sub-clinical Mastitis:
No symptoms. 15 to 40 cases for every clinical case. Milk appears normal. Only change is detection of pathogenic agent in analysis and increased somatic cell count. Mostly caused by Staphylococcus aureus.
a. No fever.
b. Animal will be eating and drinking water.
c. Gradual drop in the milk yield.
d. Udder don’t show any swelling may lose normal softness of udder.
e. Milk normal for physical appearance but curdles after boiling or milk clots appear
f. Teat pores may show plain or raised callus.
g. Mastect or Maastrip test paper can be used, electrical conductivity increases
h. SSC over 2 lakhs/ml. 35 to 40% of milking animals do suffer from this.
6. Gangrene Mastitis:
Just before calving or soon after it can appear. Can affect 1 or more quarters. Appears in certain months of the year. Caused by Bovine Herpes virus II.
Affected quarter is blue and cold to the touch. Progressive discoloration from the tip to the top. Necrotic parts drop off. Cow often dies.
a. No fever.
b. Animal will be eating and drinking water.
c. Gradual or sudden drop in the milk yield.
d. Milk emits bad smell Coli forms and Streptococcus bacteria causes the disease
e. In early stages udder may be warm, handling the teats the skin can peel off and causes pain.
7. Fungal Mastitis:
a. No swelling
b. Milk appears yellow and curdled or watery.
8. Haemogalectia–: (Still not considered as Mastitis)
Caused by Bovine Herpes Virus II.
a. May affect one or more quarters
b. Udder normal, no swelling is seen
c. Milk is blood tinged or blood clots may appear in the milk.
9. Contagious: Mastitis
caused by bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactiae, of which other infected cows are the main source.
10. Mastitis caused by bacteria
such as Coli forms, of which the main source is manure, as a contaminant
DIAGNOSIS OF MASTITIS ———-
In its clinical form, disease may be diagnosed well by the classical signs of inflammation and visible alterations in milk consistency, colour and appearance etc. The changes in levels at which certain components in the mammary secretion are present are commonly employed in identifying the disease at its subclinical level. A variety of diagnostic tests for mastitis are available which differ markedly with respect to sensitivity, specificity, simplicity, rapidity and cost. Among these, Bromothymol blue (BTB) card, Sodium lauryl sulphate (modified California mastitis test) and Electrical conductivity tests are simple and economical tests that can be performed as cow-side tests at the field level.
Bromothymol blue card test: —-
It is based on the principle that in mastitis, the pH of milk rises
due to entry of bicarbonate salts from blood into milk. Depending upon the health status of quarter and hence pH, the colour of the dye changes from yellow (normal) to greenish-yellow (+), green (++) and blue (+++) when a drop of quarter milk is placed on the card. But, this test has comparatively less sensitivity.
Sodium Lauryl Sulphate (SLS) test: ——–
It is based on the principle that reagent ruptures somatic
cell releasing cellular proteins (DNA) that results in gel formation, and depending upon the degree of gel formation the reaction is scored as 0, Trace, 1, 2 and 3. Tus, this test gives the indirect estimate of milk somatic cell count. Tis test could be used with high accuracy for estimation of milk SCC (r = 0.84).
Electrical conductivity test (EC):——–
The ions in milk conduct electricity, such that any change in concentration of ions is reflected as a change in conductivity. Dissociated, inorganic salts such as sodium, chloride and potassium are the main contributors to conductivity. The EC is moderately influenced by milk constituents such as protein and fat, which reduces the conductance of ions. The normal mean EC values were found much less in buffaloes (3.91 mS/cm) than in crossbred cattle (5.41 mS/cm). Also the discrimination ability for EC to differentiate between healthy and mastitis quarters was found more in cattle (75. 54%) than in buffaloes (66.0%). In overall, based on mean values, it is found that there is difference in conductivity of 0.5 to 1.5 mS/cm between the healthy and mastitis quarters. The EC could be measured by digital conductivity meters, which are easily available in the market. Even, hand-held battery operated digital conductivity meters are available for use as cow-side test.
TREATMENT OF MASTITIS ————
In vitro testing of milk samples revealed that drug sensitivity pattern of mastitis organisms goes on changing from time to time and place to place or farm to farm. At present, under local dairy conditions we found amoxicillin+sulbactum, gentamicin, cefriaxone+sulbactum are much effective drugs. So, treatment should be given preferably based on culture and sensitivity test. In acute or per acute cases, there is no time for these tests, so the therapy in such cases is based on the past data of herd infection and sensitivity reports. However, before starting therapy in such cases, the milk sample should be invariably taken and put to culture sensitivity so that the therapy may be changed if needed in the light of sensitivity report. Moreover, it may also be made clear that there is no surety that in vitro sensitivity determination will correlate with the in vivo treatment results. For example, enrofloxacin that shows high in vitro sensitivity and is pharmacologically considered to distribute well in the udder clinically proved to be less efficacious against staphylococcal mastitis because of its inability to kill intracellular organisms. On the other hand, amino-glycosides (gentamicin and neomycin) that are considered to have poor distribution in the udder, in vivo proved very much effective in treatment of clinical mastitis. Te organism involved in mastitis also affects the efficacy of treatment. Streptococci respond well, staphylococci less and coliforms are difficult to treat due to severe per acute reaction. However, enrofloxacin could be best recommended for treatment of per acute mastitis caused by coliforms.
For improving treatment following considerations are worthwhile.
1. Location and pathology of causative organism ———
a) Streptococcus agalactiae and Streptococcus dysgalactiae are present in milk and living epithelial cells.
b) Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus uberis and Acanthobacterium pyogenes infect the deep tissues of gland.
c) Coliform organisms cause simultaneous infection of udder and other body organs.
2. Selection of antibacterial agent——-
Treatment of mastitis involves systemic antibiotics or intramammary infusions. Ideally systemically administered antibiotics must reach udder and should achieve minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) in milk and parenchyma. Thus, pharmacologic agents which are nonionoized, lipid soluble and have low protein binding are predicted to reach the target tissue more efficiently. Also, the concentrations gradient, which serves as driving force for drugs in to tissue and secretions, is a function of drug’s total dose and frequency of administration. Thus higher dose rate or frequency, is the concentration gradient pushing the drug in to udder.
Distribution of antibiotics in udder post-intramammary administration
Good Moderate Poor
Ampicillin Benzyl Penicillin Aminoglycosides
Amoxicillin Cloxacillin Polymixin
Penethamate Cephoxazole
Novobiocin Cephalonium
Erythromycin Tetracyclines
Nitrofurans
Tylosin
3. Route of administration——–
Selection of the route of antibacterial gent is not only important because of treatment cost but treatment success also. The route of treatment is governed by degree of severity of mastitis, infective agent involved and milk yield of the affected quarters. Accordingly parentral therapy with or without intramammary infusion is preferred in acute clinical mastitis because of the simple reason of poor and uneven distribution of drug as a result of compressed and blocked duct system owing to inflammation. Intramammary route is accepted route of choice for subclinical and mastitis with local signs. However, Staphylococcal mastitis is an exception. This organism is tissue invader and is located in interstitial tissue, micro abscesses and intra cisternally in neutrophils, macrophages and epithelial cells, therefore parentral therapy should be preferred. It is advantageous to combine systemic and local therapy in treating acute clinical non gangrenous S. aureus mastitis.
4. Duration of therapy-——-
A course of 5 days treatment produces higher bacteriological cure rates than 3 day course of treatment.
5. Severity of the infection————
For taking specific therapy, clinical mastitis is generally divided into three forms viz., per acute, acute and chronic form.
Peracute mastitis: ————-
It is generally caused by coliforms and it occurs commonly around calving
but may develop at any time during lactation. The disease is usually sudden in onset: the cow may appear normal at one milking and at the next milking shows pronounced signs including anorexia, rise of temperature, depression, shivering and rumen stasis. Inflammatory signs in the udder may be minimal at this time and swelling may be detectable only afer the udder is milked out. Later, the quarter is swollen and hard, the teat may be thickened, oedematous, hot to touch and sensitive. In the early stages, the milk may appear normal or faintly watery. Subsequently it may be serous and contain tiny particles. In severe cases it may become blood tinged.
Recommended therapy includes the following: ———
**Removal of bacteria, toxins and inflammatory exudates from the mammary gland by frequent milking and even oxytocin injections (20-30 IU I/M) may be given
**Appropriate antibacterial therapy to start with systemic administration that may be later
(afer 12-24 h) supplemented with suitable intramammary infusion.
***Fluid therapy; dextrose saline solution (10-20 L in first hour, up to 60 L in severe cases)
to restore vital body fluids, dilute toxins and counteract acidosis. Even 5% sodium bicarbonate (150-250 G) with first 3-5 L of fluid may be given.
***Systemic glucocorticoids, Dexamethasone @ 1-3 mg/kg IV or IM once or may be repeated afer 8-12 hours.
***Calcium borogluconate 20% @ 500 ml IV to counteract hypocalcaemia induced by
endotoxin. Administer with care as such therapy may have damaging effects on the heart
in animals that are in shock.
***NSAIDs reduces pain and inflammation, and restores appetite
***Antihistaminic drugs and multivitamins
Acute mastitis:————–
In this form there is no systemic reaction. Primarily changes are observed in milk, which may contain flacks, become watery or thick, and sometimes may contain blood. The udder may become swollen and hard. The line of treatment includes use of antibacterial drugs plus calcium and multivitamin therapy. The combination therapy i.e. intramammary plus parenteral works well than the alone parenteral or intramammary. The important recommendations in mastitis therapy are (i) Use antibacterial on need for recommended time i.e. at least for 5 days (ii) Use appropriate dose and dosing interval (iii) Stick to the recommended milk withdrawal times.
Depending upon the sensitivity report following combination may be used:
Option Parenteral Intramammary infusion
1. Gentamicin sulphate 3-5 mg/Kg IV or IM twice daily Gentamicin sulphate 100-150 mg twice daily or commercially available intramammary preparations of neomycin for 3 days
2. Ampicillin sodium 20 mg/Kg IV followed by 10mg/kg IM twice daily Cephapirin sodium 200 mg at every milking for 3 times or cloxacillin sodium 200 mg at every milking for 6 times
3. Sulfadiazine/ trimethoprim 25 mg/Kg IV or IM od Amoxycillin sodium 62.5 mg or Hetacillin potassium 62.5 mg every milking for 6 times
4. Erythromycin lactobionate or tylosin tartrate 10 mg/Kg IV followed by 5 mg/Kg IM bid Erythromycin 300 mg at every milking for 6 times
5. Cefiofur 3-5 mg/kg IM bid Cefiofur 100 mg
6. Sulfamethazine sodium 100 mg/Kg IV
followed by 50 mg/Kg IV Option 3 or procaine penicillin 1 Lac IU at every milking for 6 times
Chronic mastitis:–———
A case is considered chronic when (i) there is formation of fibrotic cord inside teat canal (ii) there is thick pus discharge, not responding to treatment (iii) there is frequent reoccurrence of mastitis in the same quarter. The treatment/surgery of chronic mastitis is not rewarding. Rather such cases should be isolated from the milking herd or the affected quarter may be permanently dried-off by producing a chemical mastitis. Infusing 30-60 ml of 3% silver nitrate solution or 20 ml of 5% copper sulphate solution can do it. If a severe local reaction occurs, the quarter should be milked out and stripped frequently until the reaction subsides. If no reaction occurs, the quarter is stripped out 10-14 days later. Two infusions may be given.
LINE OF TREATMENT-—
Per Acute Mastitis:–
Treatment: If Initiated within 4 hours after the onset and complete treatment for 3 days if is done there is good chance of total recovery.
1. Milk out the contents. Check the pH of the milk. Wipe the teat pore with an antiseptic. With a sterilized syringe inject normal saline in to the affected quarter. Lift the udder up by holding a cloth or gunny underneath the udder and massage the quarter/s. Inject 10 to 20 i.u. of oxytocin intra muscularly and animal lets down the milk, drain out the contents. Sterilize the teat pore with antiseptic swab.
2. If the pH of the milk is alkaline orally administer sodium citrate 30mg/kg body wt in 250ml of water. {Mastikill – Indovet; }
3. Antibiotics have to injected intra mammary in water or an emollient and sterilize the teat pore with antiseptic swab and massage the udder.
4. Parentally inject antibiotics, antihistamines and liver stimulants.
5. Few liters of 5% DNS is advised by intravenous injection. Never inject just glucose as it can cause hypoglycemia.
This intravenous fluid therapy has to be continued for 24 hours through ear vein.
6. Intramammary and parentally betamethazone or dexamethazone or triampicilan injections are advised. Few animals may abort, if animal is pregnant above 6 months age there is possibility of retension of foetal membranes.
7. To control temperature and pain Novalgin/Esgepyrin/Diclofenac sodium/Melaxicam is advised
8. Above treatments have to be done once in 12 hours for 3 days.
9. Injecting immunoglobulins intramammary increases resistance of the udder tissue.
10. External application of ice cubes or Mammital ointment or ethno veterinary practice like 60 ml of aloes vera sap, 10 to 15 ml of lemon juice, 25 grams of slaked lime and 10 grams of turmeric powder is mixed and application is advised. This has to be done every hourly minimum 10 hours in a day.
11. In acute mastitis cases, homoeo drugs- Mother tincture Echinacea and Apis mellifica of CM potency each 15 to 20 drops-are being used orally 3 to 4 times on 1st day and on subsequent days 3 times a day.
12. Few other homoeo drugs that are used in acute mastitis are Belladonna 200, Phytolacca 200, Pyrogenium 1M, Gunpowder 6, and if the animal is in a lateral recumbence Conium 30 is also used each 10 pills QID or TID for desired number of days.
13. Resque remedy (Impatiens, Clematis, Rock rose, Cherry plum, Star of Bethlehem) and Crab apple each flower remedy 2-3 drops in 10 ml of water 4 times a day give good relief.
14. To increase the immune resistance, feed ground and boiled germinated horse-gram (salt or jagarry is added while boiling). Vitamin C and Levamisole injections are of some help. Homoeo Mother Tincture Withania somnifera (Aswagandha) can be used as immune modulator.
2. Acute Mastitis:–
Same treatment as in per acute mastitis can be adopted. If the milk has curdled and dark yellow in colour homoeo drug Kali bichromicum 30 has to be used 3 times a day.
3. Sub acute mastitis:—
Treatment: 1. Milk out the contents. Check the pH of the milk. Wipe the teat pore with an antiseptic. With a sterilized syringe inject normal saline in to the affected quarter. Lift the udder up by holding a cloth or gunny underneath the udder and massage the quarter/s. Inject 10 to 20 i.u. of oxytocin intra muscularly and animal lets down the milk, drain out the contents. Sterilize the teat pore with antiseptic swab.
2. If the pH of the milk is alkaline orally administer sodium citrate 30mg/kg body wt in 250ml of water. {Mastikill – Indovet;,}
3. Antibiotics have to injected intra mammary in water or an emollient and sterilize the teat pore with antiseptic swab and massage the udder.
4. Parentally inject antibiotics, antihistamines and liver stimulants.
5. 5% DNS is advised by intravenous injection. Never inject just glucose as it can cause hypoglycemia.
6. To control temperature and pain Novalgin/Esgepyrin/Diclofenac sodium/Melaxicam is advised
Above treatments have to be done for 3 days.
8. External application of ice cubes or Mammital ointment or ethno veterinary practice like 60 ml of aloes vera sap, 10 to 15 ml of lemon juice, 25 grams of slaked lime and 10 grams of turmeric powder is mixed and application is advised. This has to be done every hourly minimum 10 hours in a day.
9. These homoeo drugs can be used Echinacea Apis mellifica of CM, Belladonna 200, Phytolacca 200, Pyrogenium 1M, Gunpowder 6, each 10 pills QID or TID for desired number of days.
10. Rescue Remedy (Impatiens, Clematis, Rock rose, Cherry plum, Star of Bethlehem) and Crab apple each flower remedy 10 drops in 10 ml of water 4 times a day give good relief.
To increase the immune resistance, feed ground and boiled germinated horse-gram (salt or jagarry is added while boiling). Vitamin C and Levamisole injections are of some help. Homoeo Mother Tincture Withania somnifera (Aswagandha) can be used as immune modulator.
4. Chronic mastitis:—
Treatment: 1. Milk out the contents. Check the pH of the milk. Wipe the teat pore with an antiseptic. With a sterilized syringe inject normal saline in to the affected quarter. Lift the udder up by holding a cloth or gunny underneath the udder and massage the quarter/s. Inject 10 to 20 i.u. of oxytocin intra muscularly and animal lets down the milk, drain out the contents. Sterilize the teat pore with antiseptic swab.
2. If the pH of the milk is alkaline orally administer sodium citrate 30mg/kg body wt in 250mlof water. {Mastikill – Indovet,}
3. Antibiotics have to injected intra mammary in water or an emollient and sterilize the teat pore with antiseptic swab and massage the udder.
4. Parentally inject antibiotics, antihistamines and liver stimulants.
5. Above treatments have to be done for 3 days.
6. These homoeo drugs can be used Echinacea 200, Phytolacca 200, Pyrogenium 1M, Gunpowder 6, Sulphur 30, Carbo veg 30, Silicia 30, Aurum Muriaticum Natro Natum 30 and Thiosinaminum 6 each 10 pills QID or TID for desired number of days.
7. To increase the immune resistance, feed ground and boiled germinated horse-gram (salt or jagarry is added while boiling). Vitamin C and Levamisole injections are of some help. Homoeo Mother Tincture Withania somnifera (Aswagandha) can be used as immune modulator.
8. For very hard udders tripsin, streptokinase, and streptodartase enzymes can be injected in to the udder.
9. In one report 0.5 ml of Sulphur CM homoeo drug mixed in distilled water was injected subcutaneously.
10. Hard udder can be rubbed twice with pig fat 250gms mixed with one small bottle of Iodex can soften the udder in next lactation more milk can be obtained provided there was few ml milk was coming before this treatment.
5. Subclinical mastitis:–
Treatment: 1. Each animal’s milk from each quarter has to be tested once in fifteen days. Animals which had mastitis in earlier lactations or in this lactation, has to be tested once in a week. In case of doubt the milk has to be tested every alternate day.
2. Sodium citrate is orally administered at the rate of 30 mg/kg for one day.
3. Intramammary administration of antibiotics infusions for 3 to 5 days advised.
4. Pulsatilla 200 has been used. (Not advised if AI was done in the last 75 days can cause Early embryonic death)
6.Gangrene mastitis—-
Treatment: 1. The affected part of the udder is removed surgically and properly dressed.
7. Fungal mastitis:
Treatment: 1. Ampicillin plus Grisiophilivin has to be injected intramammarily.
8. Haemogalactia:
Treatment: 1. Antibiotics plus Stradrin like drugs are infused in to the udder.
2. Drugs like Revici containing n-butanol (10ml) is injected intramuscularly.
3. Homoeo drugs like Hamamelis 200 and Bufo 200 each 10 pills TID is used in the first 2 weeks of calving. After teat period Hamamelis 200, Arnica 6 and Ipecac6 each 10 pills t.i.d. are used.
CONTROL OF MASTITIS —————
Mastitis control is a comprehensive program that includes good milking and environment hygiene, use of properly functioning milking equipment, application of teat dipping, proper identification and treatment of mastitis cows, use of dry therapy and sound nutritional program. Worldwide, many dairy farmers have adopted these procedures and produce high quality milk. The important features of a successful mastitis control programme are: —
Minimising the source of infection:—-
Infection can be prevented by maintaining optimal environmental and milking hygiene, segregation and prompt treatment of clinical mastitis cases, culling of carriers and drying off of chronically infected quarters. The adoption of hygienic measures depends upon the epidemiology of the causative organisms. For example in case of contagious organisms, which are transmitted from one to another animal through the milking equipment and milker’s hands, proper washing of udder, cleanliness of milker’s hands/milking machine clusters in between each milking and post-milking teat dipping in germicidal solution will reduce the infection to a great extent. On the other hand, for the organisms that come from the environment e.g. to prevent coliforms mastitis animal environment should be kept clean by frequent removal of dung, proper drainage, and adequate milking and feeding space should be provided.
Elimination of existing udder infections: ———-
It is achieved by Dry therapy. The dry therapy is done at the end of lactation (after last milking) with a long acting antibiotic intramammary preparation that maintains effective drug concentration for 6-8 weeks i.e. throughout the dry period. It not only eliminates the subclinical infections of previous lactation but also prevents new IMI and increases the milk production by about 8-10%. In addition it improves the milk quality at calving and prevents the occurrence of clinical mastitis cases during dry period and around calving. Now dry therapy preparations such as Spectramast-DC are available in India.
Prevention of new intramammary infections (IMI):-———-
It is achieved by Post milking teat dipping. The teats of all the lactating cows and dry cows (during first 10-14 days of dry period) are dipped regularly after every milking in a germicidal solution. Te recommended teat dips are
1. Iodine (0.5%) solution + Glycerine @ 15% of iodine solution
2. Chlorhexidine (0.5%) solution + Glycerine @ 06% of chlorhexidine solution
The iodine teat dip is found best as it also treats various types of teat lesions and injuries.
Increasing the udder resistance to mastitis:-———–
Future trends in mastitis control are aimed at increasing the immunity of udder to mastitis pathogens. This can be achieved by use of non-specific (cytokines/ proper nutrition) and specific (vaccination) immunomodulators.
Nutrition:-——
Even slightest deficiencies of certain vitamins (Vit E, C, A and ß-carotene) and micro-nutrients (Cu, Se, Zn, Co) are reported to have detrimental impact on the efficient functioning of immune system. Vitamin A is involved in maintaining a functional epithelium that provides a physical barrier to the entrance of pathogens. ß-carotene also referred as pro-vitamin A enhances the immune function and disease resistance. Zinc supplementation prevents the infection by strengthening the skin and stratified epithelium (keratinocytes) of teat canal. Te biological role of Cu is exerted through a number of Cu containing proteins including ceruloplasmin and superoxide dismutase (SOD). Similarly, vitamin E and the Se containing enzyme glutathione peroxidase (GSHpX) also act as integral part of the antioxidant system. Studies have shown that supplementation of cows during dry period and around calving (first 8-10 weeks) with the following nutrients per head per day proved beneficial in preventing mastitis/ lowering milk SCC.
yy Vitamin 53000 IU + Beta- carotene 300 mg
yy Zinc-methionine (180-360 mg Zn, 360-720 mg methionine)
yy Copper @ 20 ppm i.e. about 200 mg
yy Vitamin E 1000 IU during dry period and 500 IU for lactating cows
yy Selenium @ 3 mg during dry period and 6 mg during lactation
Cytokines:———–
Cytokines include interferons, interleukins, colony stimulating factors (CSF), and a variety of other proteins that modulate the activity of immune cells and thus enhance the phagocytic cell functions in the udder. It has been shown that interferon treated cells exhibit significantly more phagocytosis and intracellular killing of Staphylococcus aureus. Interleukins enhance the production of local antibodies and accelerate the involution process that will further promote resistance to mastitis during the dry period. Similarly, the granulocyte-macrophage CSF significantly increases the chemo tactic and bactericidal activities of mammary gland neutrophils.
Vaccination: ———
The effective immunization against mastitis has been a goal of mastitis researchers for many years. But, the nature of disease creates a number of unique challenges for the production of successful immunity against mastitis. Commercially, few mastitis vaccines are currently available in developed world for immunization against mastitis caused by Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli but in India till now it is not available.
Several studies have evaluated these; the outcomes have been inconsistent and confusing to interpret. However, it is generally accepted that S. aureus vaccine have limited ability to prevent new infections and clinical mastitis cases. The best use of the vaccine is the reduction of chronic infections rather than prevention of new infections. The use of vaccine against coliforms mastitis has been considered efficacious even though the rate of intramammary infection is not significantly reduced in vaccinated animals but because they significantly reduced the severity of clinical disease. Its role may be expected as one the component of mastitis control programme, but alone its use may not be giving much hopeful results.
References:On request.
