On-farm milk culturing for bovine mastitis management

Abstract

Bovine mastitis is the most common reason for antibiotic usage in dairy cows, its costs being estimated at more than $350 per mastitis case. Accurately identifying the bacterial species at the core of a mastitis infection may help narrow down treatment choices and cut down on the overuse of antibiotics. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the prevalence of etiological agents in milk samples from cows with clinical mastitis using commercially available culture plates (ClearMilk, LabMediaServis, Czech Republic). Briefly, milk samples were collected from udder quarters with clinical mastitis and were aerobically cultured using the on-farm culture system. If two prominent mastitis pathogens were identified, the sample was labelled as "mixed growth," and if three or more pathogens were observed, it was labelled as "contaminated". Our results indicate that ClearMilk might be an useful on-farm milk culturing tool for detecting pathogens linked with bovine mastitis.