Mastitis Causing Pathogens within the Dairy Cattle Environment

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between bacterial numbers found within the bedding materialand those found upon the teats in cattle herds bedded on three different bedding materials; sand, sawdust and straw. Thebacteria to be studied are known to be responsible for the development of mastitis within the mammary glands resultingin reduced milk quality and poor welfare conditions for the animal. Samples for the analysis were collected undernatural housing conditions from the bedding and from the teats of a representative sample of each herd. These were thenplated to isolate numbers of the environmental bacteria, Streptococcus uberis and Escherichia coli (E. coli), and toconduct a total viable count for comparison. Statistical analysis showed that six of the nine relationships tested resultedin a P<0.05. The microbial test results also showed that the straw bedding hosted the lowest total number of bacteria at8.5 x 10. When compared with the incidence of mastitis infections within the herd, the straw bedding had aconsiderably higher number of infections than from the sand or sawdust with thirty-one cases recorded. In conclusion,minimising pathogen growth within the bedding material, results in lower numbers of pathogens being transmitted ontothe cow's teats thereby reducing the possibility of intrammamary infections. It is recommended that further work iscarried out through repeating the study on a larger number of farms to identify whether the relationship between thebacterial numbers exists on further farms. In addition to this, it is also recommended that further analysis of thepathogens responsible for the mastitis within the herds be undertaken to identify if the environmental pathogens areresponsible for these intrammamary infections.