Environmental Organisms as Risk Factors in the Occurrence of Mastitis in Dairy Buffaloes with Suggested Methods of Control. A Field Study

Mastitis results in tremendous economic losses to the dairy industry all over the world. A field study was carried out on 200 buffalo cows (native breed) aged from 2 to 4 years old in herd groups near Alexandria Desert Road (El-Khatatba), Giza, Egypt, whereas unhygienic measures were prevailed. 33 out of 200 examined animals were mastitic and the clinically diseased cases with acute mastitis were characterized by the visible moderate swelling and firmness of infected quarters, sign of chunks of milk, milk clots and sometimes viscous milk. Samples were taken from clinical mastitic quarters, bulk milk tank, milking machine and water sources (pipes and tank) and bacteriologically examined to identify the causative agent. It was found that the major causative agents isolated from the clinically mastitic cases were Escherichia coli (43.8 %), Staph aureus (37.4 %) and Mycoplasma bovigenitalium (16.5 %). When applying different lines of treatment, the diseased animals were classified into 3 groups (11 each). The first group received local treatment with intramammary infusion of 125 mg of ceftiofur hydrochloride, while the second group received systemic treatment with I/M injection of both enrofloxacin (5mg/kg body weight for 5 successive days) and I/V injection of carprofen (2.9ml/kg body weight) as an immunomodulator drug. The third group received a combination of both local and systemic treatment. The recovery percentage was 54.5, 80.9 and 90.9 for the three groups, respectively. The highest incidence of recovery was obtained in the third group, in which stimulation of the innate immune mechanisms of the animal was applied. The discard milk from sick or antibiotics treatment cases was examined before and after heat treatment to 55, 60, 65 and 70°C for either 2, 3, 5, 10 and 30 minutes. It could be concluded that both environmental and hygienic measures surrounded the animals constitute a major risk factors in the occurrence of mastitis, so continuous bacteriological investigation together with treatment of both mastitic animals and discard milk must be done.