MASTITIS CONTROL

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20734, 18 February 1939, Page 27 (Supplement)

MASTITIS CONTROL

WORK IN ENGLAND English agricultural exchanges during the last few weeks have been j publishing more and more information ; in regard to mastitis so it is evident | that greater attention is being given j overseas to the serious nature of this disease. In a recent address to the Farmers’ Club in London, Dr F. C. Minetl, Director, Research Institute in Animal Pathology, Royal Veterinary College, London, stated that it must be realised in the first place that mastitis, though involving a single organ of the body, was not one disease but included a group of diseases; in other words, inflammatory changes in the udder of the cow might be caused at different times by several different kinds of bacteria. The form of mastitis, which was by far the most common and which was seen in milking cows, followed a course that was essentially chronic, though from time to time the disease might pass through an acute phase. During long periods there might appear to be little or nothing wrong with the udder or the milk, though careful examination was likely to reveal some induration of the udd?r tissues, either throughout its substance or at certain parts of it. The truth, however, was that during this more or less quiescent period the disease process was destroying more and more of the milk secreting tissue, and the result would be the "light quarter” with which milkers were too familiar. Natural Recovery In such udders symptoms of acute inflammation were liable to appear from time to time and the milk was then definitely changed to a watery fluid containing clots. Speaking generally, natural recovery did not take place, at any rate not before the quarter was largely destroyed. Finally, it should be said that at no time was there any disturbance in the cow’s general health. A form of mastitis which was on the whole much less common was an acute one, in which the udder tissue might be rapidly destroyed. The initial symptom in this form was a "ballooning” of one or more quarters, with complete or almost Complete failure of the secretion. After a few days, the secretion might partially return or, on the contrary, the quarter might shrivel and remain permanently dry. In research work it had been found that the prevalence ose with age and that among animals in their first lactation the incidence as a rule did not exceed 5 per cent. No relationship had been found between the extent of infection and the class of herd. As to the way in which the disease spread, it could be taken as certain that this occurred during the course of milking, the streptococci entering by wav of the teat canal and being facilitated in their passage by injuries about the teat orifice.