Abatement of the clostridial load in the teats of lactating cows with lysozyme derived from donkey milk

Abstract

The use of a sterilized product for washing cows' udders before milking may be useful to reduce or prevent Clostridium tyrobutyricum contamination, the main cause of the late-blowing defect in hard and semi-hard cheeses. The aim of this research was to evaluate the antibacterial efficacy of an experimental formula containing 15% condensed donkey milk (lysozyme content 825 mg/L). The antimicrobial activity of condensed milk was first evaluated in vitro, using the disk diffusion method, on the following microorganisms: Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus mojavensis, Clavibacter michiganensis, and Clostridium tyrobutyricum. These results were compared with the effects of 2 antibiotics, ampicillin (100 mg/mL) and kanamycin (50 mg/ mL), and a commercial pre-dipping formula. The results showed that the inhibitory activity of lysozyme from donkey milk on all the considered microorganisms was higher than that of the commercial product and similar to that of the 2 antibiotics. Next, the formula with lysozyme was compared with a commercial pre-dipping formula on 48 lactating cows (24 cows in each group). Skin tests were performed on teats before and after pre-dipping. Results showed that the formula with condensed milk significantly reduced the clostridial load detected on the skin of cows' teats before cleaning (−55.61% vs. −27.99%) and in the bulk milk of the experimental group compared with the control group with commercial product (−52.53% vs. −32.42%).

Applications of Lysozyme, an Innate Immune Defense Factor, as an Alternative Antibiotic

“…The antimicrobial activity of condensed milk was firstly evaluated in vitro, using the disk diffusion method on the following microorganisms: Bacillus megaterium , Bacillus mojavensis , Clavibacter michiganensis , and Clostridium tyrobutyricum . These tests were compared with the effects of two antibiotics, ampicillin (100 mg/mL) and kanamycin (50 mg/mL), and a commercial pre-dipping formula, showing that the inhibitory activity of lysozyme from donkey milk on all the considered microorganisms was higher than that of the commercial product and similar to that of the two antibiotics [ 215 ]. Bovine viral diarrhea virus (BVDV), an enveloped, single-stranded, positive-sense RNA virus from the Flaviviridae family, is a globally distributed bovine pathogen.…”

Differential Somatic Cell Count as a Novel Indicator of Milk Quality in Dairy Cows

“…In fact, the modifications in the amount of these different cell populations in milk according to the udder health conditions relates to the actual inflammatory status of the mammary glands [11,12]. Moreover, there is evidence that different proportions of these cell populations, within specific SCC levels, could modify the final characteristic of dairy products [13,14], as well as different categories of environmental microorganisms (i.e., Clostridia) that, although nonpathogenic, have a strong unfavorable dairy activity [15].…”

Investigation of donkey milk bacterial diversity by 16S rDNA high-throughput sequencing on a Cyprus donkey farm

“…In particular, the interest in donkey milk has increased dramatically over the past few years due to its nutritional, nutraceutical, functional, and immunological properties (Aspri et al, 2017b). Several studies have demonstrated that donkey milk maintains antimicrobial (Zhang et al, 2008;Brumini et al, 2013;Koutb, 2016;Adduci et al, 2019), antiinflammatory (Jirillo and Magrone, 2014;Yvon et al, 2018), antimitotic, as well as antitumor (Mao et al, 2009) capacities. Furthermore, it has been reported to be a suitable alternative for infants suffering from cow milk protein allergy (Souroullas et al, 2018).…”