Bacteriological etiology and treatment of mastitis in Finnish dairy herds

Abstract

BackgroundThe Finnish dairy herd recording system maintains production and health records of cows and herds. Veterinarians and farmers register veterinary treatments in the system. Milk samples for microbiological analysis are routinely taken from mastitic cows. The laboratory of the largest dairy company in Finland, Valio Ltd., analyzes most samples using real-time PCR. This study addressed pathogen-specific microbiological data and treatment and culling records, in combination with cow and herd characteristics, from the Finnish dairy herd recording system during 2010–2012.ResultsThe data derived from 240,067 quarter milk samples from 93,529 dairy cows with mastitis; 238,235 cows from the same herds served as the control group. No target pathogen DNA was detected in 12% of the samples. In 49% of the positive samples, only one target species and in 19%, two species with one dominant species were present. The most common species in the samples with a single species only were coagulase-negative staphylococci (CNS) (43%), followed by Staphylococcus aureus (21%), Streptococcus uberis (9%), Streptococcus dysgalactiae (8%), Corynebacterium bovis (7%), and Escherichia coli (5%). On average, 36% of the study cows and 6% of the control cows had recorded mastitis treatments during lactation. The corresponding proportions were 16 and 6% at drying-off. For more than 75% of the treatments during lactation, diagnosis was acute clinical mastitis. In the milk samples from cows with a recorded mastitis treatment during lactation, CNS and S. aureus were most common, followed by streptococci. Altogether, 48% of the cows were culled during the study. Mastitis was reported as the most common reason to cull; 49% of study cows and 18% of control cows were culled because of mastitis. Culling was most likely if S. aureus was detected in the milk sample submitted during the culling year.ConclusionsThe PCR test has proven to be an applicable method also for large-scale use in bacterial diagnostics. In the present study, microbiological diagnosis was unequivocal in the great majority of samples where a single species or two species with one dominating were detected. Coagulase-negative staphylococci and S. aureus were the most common species. S. aureus was also the most common pathogen among the culled cows, which emphasizes the importance of preventive measures.

Short communication: Drying-off practices and use of dry cow therapy in Finnish dairy herds

“…aureus increased from 15.9% to 21.1%, Strep. agalactiae from 0.2% to 0.4%, CNS from 21.1% to 43.3%, and C. bovis from 2.2% to 7.2% (Koivula et al, 2007;Vakkamäki et al, 2017), even though it is important to note that different methodologies were used in these studies, making direct comparison challenging. Bacteria such as Staph.…”

“…Milk from all cows was microbiologically examined at dry-off in 33.9% of the responding farms applying selective DCT. In Finland, bacteriological examination of milk samples is mostly carried out by using PCR in the laboratory of the major dairy processor (Vakkamäki et al, 2017). This PCR assay also tests for the presence of β-lactamase gene.…”

Antimicrobial resistance profiles of 5 common bovine mastitis pathogens in large Chinese dairy herds

“…Mastitis is a major economic burden on the dairy industry, affecting milk production and milk quality (Abebe et al, 2016;Hogeveen and Van Der Voort, 2017). Numerous microorganisms associated with cases of mastitis have been isolated (Krömker and Leimbach, 2017;Vakkamäki et al, 2017); the most frequently isolated pathogens associated with clinical mastitis (CM) in China are Escherichia coli, Klebsiella spp., NAS, Streptococcus dysgalactiae, and Staphylococcus aureus . Identification of pathogens causing CM enables appropriate choices for antimicrobial treatment (Pinzón-Sánchez et al, 2011) and preventive mastitis management.…”

Virulence-associated genes and molecular typing of Streptococcus uberisassociated with bovine mastitis in northern Thailand

“…Streptococcus uberis has been reported to be a major cause of bovine mastitis in many countries throughout the world (1,2), including Thailand (3). S. uberis is associated with subclinical and clinical intramammary infection (IMI) at any period of lactation (4) and in pregnant heifers (5).…”