CLINICAL MASTITIS , DIRECT CULTURE AND THERAPY

This paper is written by a practitioner veterinarian. The clinical symptoms of mastitis cases give little information on the pathogen involved. For more than 18 years mastitis bacteria have been cultured directly from clinical cases of mastitis. Different media have been used: Müller Hinton agar, Mannitol agar, SELMA dish and blood agar. The SELMA dish is found to be an excellent dish that gives even untrained bacteriologists a good differentiation of the different mastitis pathogens. Today a set of blood agar dishes, one ordinary and one containing penicillin 0.1 i.u/ml, is used. It is cheap and the hemolysis is seen better than on the SELMA dish. Staphylococcae mastitis is often connected with teat lesions and has a low cure rate. Like staphylococcus, Streptococcus dysgalactiae is often connected with lesions of the teat. It might be found together with Actinomyces pyogenes. For Streptococcus uberis no particular patterns have been observed. Like E. coli, Streptococcus uberis is referred to as environmental mastitis pathogens. I believe that immunosuppression is an essential factor when these cases occur endemically. For Actinomyces pyogenes mastitis the systemic symptoms seem to be better controlled by tylosin therapy. Yeast mastitis often gives a swollen quarter for more than one week. Antibiotic therapy is not effective, and the quarter is clinically normal after 2 3 weeks of milking. In coliform mastitis CFU in milk is a valuable prognostic tool. When solitary colonies are found by direct culture of a milk sample in the homelab, the case is uncomplicated. When carpet growth is found, it corresponding more than 1 million CFU/ml, endotoxins are often found in the milk vein and prognosis is reserved. In these cases therapy must be intense and include frequent milking, fluids (NaCl 7% 4-5 ml/kg body weight or blood transfusion) , calcium at first visit, NSAIDs, pain relief epidural (11⁄2 ml Morfine 20mg/ml +1 ml Xylacin 20mg/ml and isotonic NaCl ad 10 ml) and antibiotics. This article is based on the following papers, which will be referred to in the text by their roman numerals I VIII I Katholm J.: Acute mastitis in a Danish country practice. Frequency, Clinical parameters, bacteriological prevalence and resistance pattern. Dansk Veterinær Tidsskrift 1986, 69, 24, 1261-1265. II Katholm J.: Coliform Mastitis. Home cultivation and therapy. Dansk Veterinær Tidsskrift 1989, 72, 4, 171-177. III J. Katholm, Ø. R. Jepsen and N. Agger. Peracute coliform mastitis. Experiences from 70 cases in General Practice. International Conference on mastitis. St Georgen/Längsee Austria. 1989. 8 12. IV Katholm J.:Mastitis Diagnostics on SELMA agar. Dansk Veterinær Tidsskrift. 1990, 73, 57-60. V Katholm J. and Andersen P.H. : Acute coliform mastitis in dairy cows: Endotoxin and biochemical changes in plasma and colony-forming units (CFU) in milk. Paper for application for the title "Kvægfagdyrlæge recognized by the Danish Veterinary Organisation" 1990. Not published. VI Katholm J. and P. H. Andersen:Acute Coliform Mastitis in Cattle. International Conference Mastitis:Physiology or Pathology, Gent, Belgium, 1990, 140. VII Katholm J. and Andersen P.H. : Acute Coliform Mastitis in Cattle: Endotoxin and biochemical changes in plasma and colony-forming units (CFU) in milk. The Veterinary Record, November 28, 1992, 513-514. VIII Katholm J. and Andersen P.H. : Severe coliform mastitis in Practice, Efficacy of a therapy regimen not including antibiotics. XX World Buiatrics Congress, Sydney Australia 1998, p. 261-264