Status of Mastitis as an Emerging Disease in Improved and Periurban Dairy Farms in India

Abstract

While reviewing present status of mastitis in India, results of investigations from periurban dairy farms on epidemiological, clinical manifestations, diagnosis, bacterial isolation, in vitro drug sensitivity, and treatment of subclinical mastitis have been presented. Mastitis, on account of its causing serious wastage and undesirable milk quality, is emerging as a major challenge among the others (like breeding improvement, nutrition management, control of infectious, tick-borne, blood, and internal parasitic diseases) in dairy development of tropics. Subclinical mastitis was found more important in India (varying from 10-50% in cows and 5-20% in buffaloes) than clinical mastitis (1-10%). The incidence was highest in Purebred Holsteins and Jerseys and lowest in local cattle and buffaloes. An investigation on 250 animals from periurban farms indicated that the monsoon season was more prone to subclinical mastitis than summer or winter, prevalence increased with higher lactation number and animals in 4th-5th month of lactation were found more susceptible (59.49%), hind quarters were found more affected (56.52%) than fore quarters (43.47%). The factors like herd size, agro climatic conditions of the region, variations in sociocultural practices, milk marketing, literacy level of the animal owner, system of feeding, and management were found important affecting the incidence of subclinical mastitis. Comparison of efficacy of different diagnostic techniques for subclinical mastitis, such as modified California mastitis test (MCMT), bromo thymol blue (BTB), modified whiteside test, trypsin inhibition test, milk pH, and electric conductivity indicated MCMT to be most sensitive (95.16%) and specific (98.02%) test. The antimicrobial susceptibility test revealed that most of the bacterial strains (gram positive, gram negative, and mixed) isolated from subclinical mastitis milk samples, were highly sensitive to enrofloxacin 53.91%, least sensitive to oxytetracycline 17.39% and ampicillin 7.83%, and resistant to streptomycin. The therapy with enrofloxacin and nimesulide was found more efficacious (92.30%) in treating subclinical mastitis cows. It was concluded that consideration of socioecological factors for mastitis control in periurban area would help to reduce the cost of mastitis control in clean milk production.

Incidence of Staphylococci and Streptococci During Winter in Mastitic Milk of Sahiwal Cow and Murrah Buffaloes

“…Joshi and Shrestha [24] reported that 75.9% of the cases were during summer and only 5.4% in winter in Murrah buffaloes. Joshi and Gokhale [26] observed subclinical mastitis incidences were more in monsoon season compared to winter. However, Shathele [27] reported that incidence of mastitis was higher in colder months in Holstein-Friesian and showed significant effect of season on incidence of mastitis on new cases.…”

Meta-analysis of Prevalence of Subclinical and Clinical Mastitis, Major Mastitis Pathogens in Dairy Cattle in India

“…This study showed that the SCM was increasing and CM prevalence was decreasing over the past six year period . Further, there was high heterogeneity was observed between various studies for the estimates of mastitis prevalence and it might be due to various factors like parity of cattle, lactation stage and genetic makeup of animals, agroclimatic conditions and farm managemental practices (Joshi and Gokhale, 2006). More number of studies on SCM (32) and CM (19) prevalence are being reported during 2011-16 indicating the importance of mastitis in dairy cows in India during recent years.…”

Molecular Characterization and Toxicity Confirmation of LukM/F′-PV Producing Staphylococcus aureus Isolated from Bovine Mastitis Samples in Mysore, India

“…India being one of the largest producers of milk is at risk with respect to bovine mastitis and in particular, subclinical mastitis is found to be more important varying from 10 to 50 % in cows and 5 to 20 % in buffaloes than clinical [16]. During such subclinical forms, the latent inflammatory reaction within the mammary gland is detectable only through the culturing of milk for the identification of the residing pathogen [17].…”