Evaluation of the Mastitis in Early Stages of Pregnancy in Cows

The aim of this study was to determine the effects of mastitis on the pregnancy in the early period of pregnancy along and the factors affecting the mastitis in this period. The study material consisted of 2-4 years old 100 Holstein cows on the 40-80th days of postpartum. PGF2a+ovsynch synchronization protocol was applied to the animals included in the study. All the animals were inseminated at fixed time after 12-16 hours of second GnRH injection. Pregnancy examination was performed at 30 days post insemination using ultrasound. The animals found to be pregnant were examined again on the 50th, 70th and 90th days by rectal examination. The animals were checked for clinical and subclinical mastitis during embryonal (0-45 days) and early foetal (45-90 days) periods. A daily physical milk examination was performed to identify clinical mastitis in all cows during the embryonic period and CMT and MC analyses were performed to determine subclinical mastitis on the 15th-30th and 45th days after insemination. Daily clinical mastitis control was performed in the early foetal period, and subclinical mastitis control was done on the 50th-70th and 90th days. Microbiological analysis was performed by taking milk samples from cows determined to have mastitis. Clinical mastitis between 0-45 days, subclinical mastitis between 50-90 days and clinical mastitis were identified in 1 (1%), 19 (19%) and 3 (3%) cows, respectively, totally in 23 of 100 lactating cows during the study. Two pregnancy losses were occurred in the clinical mastitis identified cows at the 50th day examination and one pregnancy loss in the clinical and two pregnancy losses were occurred in the subclinical mastitis identified cows at the 70th day examination. It was concluded that clinical and subclinical mastitis may cause pregnancy loss during the first 90 day of pregnancy and most common factors causing mastitis are S. aureus, CNS and E. coli