HANNOVER/GERMANY, May 3rd (Biermann) – Streptococcus uberis and Staphylococcus aureus are important mastitis pathogens in dairy cows in the entire world, researchers from the University of Applied Sciences in Hannover explain in the German veterinary journal “Berliner und Münchner Tierärztliche Wochenschrift”.

In response to recent publications showing that an extended therapy can be more efficient in combating such intramammary infections, the team, led by Volker Krömker, evaluated the effect of an extended intramammary therapy to treat moderate and severe mastitis cases in lactating dairy cows under field conditions in northern Germany.

From December 2005 to August 2007, they enrolled 157 clinical mastitis cases on 10 farms in the study and randomly assigned the animals to one of two treatment groups: intrammammary lincomycin/neomycin for 1.5 days or 5 days.

Krömker and colleagues report that, overall, treatments were not significantly different to controls regarding clinical cure rate. However, they point out, when the microbiological cure rate was evaluated, differences were observed. Thus, they conclude that in farms with Streptococcus uberis mastitis, the 5 days extended lincomycin/neomycin treatment regimen is significantly more efficient in microbiological cure than the standard 1.5 days treatment.

References

• Berliner und Münchner Tierärztliche Wochenschrift, 2010 Mar-Apr;123(3-4):147-52.