Udder Health 2

What are all the factors that lead to mastitis?

Cow, environment, bacteria, people

What are the milk producing cells?

Alveoli

What divides the utter into quaters?

Suspensory ligament in the middle

Membrane to make quaters

What is the only organism that can migrate across quaters?

Mycoplasma

How do most bacteria enter the mastitis?

Teat end only (except for mycoplasma)

Bacteria can be located on the teat and in the teat canal normally, but when does it become a problem?

When it colonizes milk producing tissue

What do contagious mastitis organisms like to do?

create microabscesses and hide from immune system

What are the contagious causes of mastitis?

Staph aureus

Mycoplasma bovis (mostly in southwest)

Strep agalactiae 

What cause of contagious mastitis is most common?

Staph aureus

What cause of contagious mastitis is very rare in the US?

Strep agalactiae

What are the environmental causes of mastitis?

Coliforms

Environmental streps

Environmental staphs

Other: Serratia, Proteus, Raoultella

What are the coliforms?

Gram negative, E. coli, Klebsiella, Enterobacter

What are the environmental streps?

Gram positive, Strep. uberis and dysgalactiae

What are the environmental staphs?

Gram positive called coagulase negative staphs (CNS)

How common is coliform mastitis in well managed herds?

40% of all cases and 25% of cows are diagnosed with it every year

What is the relationship of clinical mastitis from gram negatives on bulk tank somatic cell count (WBCs)?

Inverse relationship due to time lag of clinical mastitis before WBCs can be recruited

What management changes have reduced the prevalence of contagious to environmental mastitis?

1. Post-milk teat disinfection

2. Universal dry-cow therapy

3. Treatment SOP for clinical cases

4. Routine/regular milking machine maintenance

5. Culling chronic mastitis cows

Describe contagious mastitis/

Able to colonize and live in the udder with infection occurring during the milking process

Describe environmental mastitis

Are eliminated rapidly once inside the udder with infection occurring between milkings (can occur during milking with dirty udders or a bad machine)

What are the infection scenarios?

Contagious organism milk is in the teat cup from previous cow and when attached to the next the organisms can enter the teat end

OR

Staph aureus/Mycoplasma are on the skin and at the next milking the cow se lf inoculates

What is the key to preventing S. aureus infections?

Post dipping the cows

What is the progression of contagious mastitis?

Infections last for a long time with chronicity

Management changes reduce new infection rate

Bulk tank SCC decreases slowly after management changes

What is the progression for environmental mastitis?

Infections are short lived

Management changes reduce new infection rate

Bulk tank SCC decreases quickly after management changes

At what level of SCC does the milk lose value?

350,000 and higher. If below 150k they can get a premium

How can you manage environmental mastitis in the environment?

Clean bedding

Reduce manure exposure

Reduce environmental moisture (very hard to manage)

Good stall design

Decreased animal density

When is there always an increased environmental moisture?

In the summer

Why do we sand the stalls and groom them while cows are being milked?

Cleans the stall

How often should bedding be changed out?

Every week is advised

How can you reduce manure in a pen?

Flush system every time cows are milked

How can you identify clinical mastitis?

Abnormal milk, swollen quarter, painful quarter, red quarter, fever, anorexia, lethargy, rumen stasis

What causes mild mastitis?

Gram positives like CNS, Staph, or strep

What causes severe mastitis?

Gram negatives like E. coli, Kleb, Enterobacter because of the endotoxin need fluids and banamines

How do you identify a subclinical mastitis?

California mastitis test

Electrolytic conductivity because during infection, lactose and K decrease, Na and Cl increase causing resistance of milk to electric current

Dairy herd imrpovement SCC

Bulk tank SCC

What is a positive california mastitis test?

It becomes thicker as more DNA from bacteria are present

What is dairy herd imrovement SCC?

An organization comes in and analyzes each sample of milk to analyze for subclinical mastitis. If Raw SCC >200k then there is an infectino

What does a dairy herd improvement SCC linear score >4 - 4.2 mean?

Infection

What do you want your bulk tank SCC to be?

<150k - 175k probably gonna be higher in the summer

What happens to immune system close to calving?

Immunosuppression and eating less

What age are more susceptible to mastitis?

Older cows due to deeper udders, less tight teat-end sphincter, more susceptible to metabolic diseases

What is mastitis risk directly related to?

bacterial load on the teat

What bedding do you want?

Inorganic like sand

What happens to environmental pathogens as temp and humidity increase?

Go up

How can you decrease heat and humidity abatement (stress)?

Open sidewalls

Fans

Misters

How useful is milkers wearing gloves?

Reduces bacteria by 75%

What is the gold standard for wiping teats?

Cloth towels

What does the pre-dip teat do?

controls environmental mastitis by reducing bacteria load on teat at time of milking

What does the post-dip teat do?

Controls contagious mastitis by removing milk film but will not last long enough between milkings to assist with environmental mastitis

What can you use for a teat dip?

Good universal choice is 0.5-1% iodine with 10% emollients or chlorhex with emollients

Also can use iodine, chlorine, acidified sodium chlorite, sodium hypochlorite, chlorhex, hydrogen peroxide

What is chlor hex teat dep associated with?

Serratia mastitis outbreaks

T/F anything that reduces the health of the teat skin/end can increase bacterial load?

True

Hyperkeratosis on the teat is indicative of what bacteria?

S. aureus

What is the evidence that vaccines for mastitis are good?

Usually reports a decreased severity, reduced SCC, increased milk production

The problem is that herd environment is likely different than most papers

What are the gram negative core vaccines for E. coli?

J5, Mastiguard, JVac

What are the gram negative core vaccines for Klebsiella?

Klebvax and Vaccon

How often are the gram negative core vaccines labeled for?

2-3 doses a year

When should vaccines be used for mastitis prevention?

Herds that are performing the 5 step prevention program and are concentrating on environmental management

What are teat sealants?

Prevent bacteria from entering the streak canal and causing infection during dry period

Period at the beginning of dry period

What are the external teat sealants and the problems with thme?

Silicone/latex based, non-antibiotic but must be reapplied every 5-7 days

What are the internal teat sealants and what are the pros?

Bismuth based and non-antibiotic that will allow for internal adherence from dry off until first milking

Brands are Orbeseal, Lockout, and U-Seal

T/F teat sealants with or without the addition of antibiotics at dry off are very efficient?

True

What is the current thinking for dry off period/

Internal teat sealants are economically worthwhile

Blanket intramammary Ab treatment is also good

Select Ab treatment in cows with SCC>200k in last 3 months in herds with a BTSCC <250k do not need intramammary Ab but teat sealant is good