Environmental Mastitis

An Everyday Affair

Abstract

Bovine mastitis continues as a major disease problem of dairy cattle (1). Improved control is needed to maximize dairymen's profits and to improve the quality of milk to consumers. Development of a single uniform method of control has been difficult as mastitis is not caused by a single pathogen but is a disease involving multiple microorganisms (primarily bacteria) which can and do infect the mammary gland. In reality, mastitis is multiple different diseases occurring in the bovine mammary gland.

The primary bacteria associated with mastitis (Table 1) can be grouped according to their primary origin and means of spread within a dairy herd. These pathogen groups are contagious, environmental, and skin flora opportunists. The two major contagious pathogens, Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactiae, exist primarily in infected quarters and are spread to uninfected quarters during the milking process. Progress for control of the contagious pathogens has been achieved (2,3). Implementation of post-milking teat end disinfection and total dry cow therapy can eliminate Str. agalactiae from a dairy herd and reduce the prevalance of S. aureus infection to less than 1 % of quarters.