What is Mastitis?
Mastitis is inflammation of the mammary gland and udder tissue. It occurs as a response to an invasion of bacteria in the teat canal, from a variety of bacteria sources from the cows surroundings and is a major problem to dairy cattle. Mastitis can also occur from mechanical, chemical or thermal injury to the cow’s udder. The bacterial toxins can damage milk secreting tissue and other such ducts and sometimes-permanent damage can occur. Mastitis can be caused by a number of different bacteria including Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus uberis, Escherichia coli and Enterobacter aerogenes.
The most common bacteria causing mastitis in Ireland are Staphaureus, Strepuberis, and E. coli.
Mastitis is a difficult problem because
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The obvious signs in the milk are clots, flakes or a watery appearance as well as the udder being swollen extremely hot and sensitive to touch. Clinical mastitis can range from mild to severe.
Environmental mastitis: Cows housed are at a higher risk of contracting mastitis over animals out in the field. Pathogens build up easier in housing and in areas such a bedding, feedstuff, manure, water sources and just general dust and dirt. Bedding material that is not regularly changed is one of the higher risks with factors such as moisture and temperature adding greatly to the number of pathogens present. Along with these, if housing conditions are overcrowded poorly ventilated and manure is not cleaned regularly the occurance of mastitis will rise greatly, causing large problems for the farmer.
Subclinical Mastitis is more difficult to detect because there are no visible signs or abnormalities present in the milk. The milk would appear completely normal but the cow generally produces less and the quality of the milk is greatly decreased. A somatic cell test would need to be carried out for an accurate diagnosis of Mastitis and this would need to be done quickly as cows can spread the disease through out the