Bacteriological aspects of mastitis in selected local dairy herds.

Professorial Chair Lecture

Metro Manila Commission Professorial Chair Lecture

Place

College of Veterinary Medicine, UPLB

Date

4-29-2008

Abstract

Mastitis is the most economically significant disease among diary herds worldwide. To establish the extent of mastitis problem in local dairy farms and determine the common bacterial agents involved in these intramammary infections and their antibiotic sensitivity profiles, a cross-sectional study on mastitis was done. This included detection of mastitis cases using California Mastitis Test (CMT) among backyard dairy herds in Laguna and Batangas, bacterial isolation and identification from identified mastitic cases by conventional isolation procedures and automated miniaturized identification using BBL Crystal IDTM identification kits, and in vitro antibiotic susceptibility profiling of each isolate recovered and identified using the Kirby-Bauer method.

A total of 48 (49.5%) of the 97 backyard dairy cows tested were found to have at least one mastitic udder. From the 88 milk samples collected from these mastitic udders, a total of 132 bacterial isolates were recovered and identified. The two most common organisms found were Staphylococcus aureus (31.06%) and Escherichia coli (12.88%). Overall, 62 of the 82 (75.6%) isolates were found resistant to at least one of the following antibiotics: penicillin, ampicillin, streptomycin, amoxicillin, cefixime, oxytetracycline, TMPS, amoxi-clav, erythromycin, and cefaclor. Almost all Staphylococcus aureus isolates were found to be susceptible and 7 (8.5%) as intermediately susceptible. On the other hand, cefixime was found to be the least efficacious, with 39 out of 56 (69.6%) of the isolates being found as resistant. Several isolates, particularly Bacillu cerus, coliforms and Psedomonas species were also found to have multiple resistance to different antibiotics.

Although antibiotic therapy may be a useful therapeutic tool, the importance of good management practices to control mastitis should nonetheless be equally emphasized. This includes good hygienic farm practices such as teat dipping, use of individual towels, reducing contamination of udders, continuous monitoring for new intramammary infections, and the implementation of the 5-point mastitis control plan where applicable. Another important aspect is the education of backyard farmers on the importance and economic significance of mastitis and the correct approaches to managing and preventing the disease. Future directions should include studies to estimate the economic impact of mastitis on backyard dairy farming and researches on alternative cost-effective therapeutic approaches to reduce the burden of this costly disease.

Location

UPLB Main Library Special Collections Section (USCS)

College

College of Veterinary Medicine (CVM)

Language

English

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