Renata Relic

Clinical and subclinical mastitis in cows

The most important aspects of diagnosis and occurrence of clinical and subclinical mastitis are presented in this paper. Mastitis is inflammation of udders parenchyma characterized by pathological changes, and physical chemical and bacteriological changes of milk. Subclinical mastitis could be diagnosed by direct or indirect somatic cell count (SCC) by California Mastitis test and N-acetyl-B-D-glucosamynidasys test, ELISA and Whiteside test, and also by chloride and bovine serum albumin level, as well as by electric conductivity of milk. Therapy of mastitis is more successful with appropriate information about pathogen, which demands special mediums laboratory conditions and stuff, in order to evaluate antibiotic sensitivity of specific pathogen. In the majority of countries, similar rate of morbidity (about 40%) and infection rate (25%) of dairy cows were reported, regardless of the cause. Prevalence investigations show similarity in the most of the countries. Predominant cause of mastitis is Staphylococcus aureus, followed by Streptococcus agalactiae. Available data show that incidence rate of mastitis caused by E. coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Aerobacter aerogenes and Klebsiella spp. is increasing. Similar data on incidence of mastits and prevalence of specific pathogen were established in our country.