Prevalence, incidence and risk factors of heifer mastitis
Introduction
It is common to introduce the subject of heifer mastitis by indicating that primiparae should in theory be free of intramammary infections (IMI) at first parturition. These animals have not experienced the rigors of multiple daily milkings, and thus have had less exposure to contagious pathogens that could be transmitted during milking time. Additionally, heifers have not been challenged with milking vacuums that have been associated with a deleterious effect on the structure of the teat end. For most of the heifer’s life, the mammary gland has been immature and it would seem less likely to be in close physical contact to the environment, as contrasted with multiparous cattle. However, mastitis in heifers is not uncommon, although tending to be less prevalent than mastitis in older cows. The focus of this manuscript is the description of pre- and postpartum prevalence and incidence of clinical and subclinical mastitis in heifers and a discussion of possible risk factors associated with heifer mastitis.
Section snippets
Subclinical mastitis in heifers
Mastitis is defined as inflammation of mammary gland and not as IMI. Yet IMI and mastitis are often used interchangeably. The measure of milk somatic cell count (SCC) is an often used measure of mammary inflammation and an increase in SCC is strongly correlated with increased probability of IMI (Eberhart et al., 1979, Dohoo and Leslie, 1991). The milk SCC threshold of 200,000 cells/ml is used to distinguish milk secretion from a mammary quarter with (>200,000 cells/ml) or without (<200,000
Clinical mastitis in heifers
Classically, clinical mastitis in heifers was best known as the “summer mastitis syndrome” and the terms summer mastitis and heifer mastitis have been used synonymously (Seno and Azuma, 1983). In a review (Shearer and Harmon, 1993) of heifer mastitis, summer mastitis is described as an acute, suppurative infection affecting non-lactating animals, both dry cows and heifers. A. pyogenes and the anaerobe Peptococcus indolicus are frequently isolated (Shearer and Harmon, 1993). Additionally,
Conclusions
Studies of heifer mastitis were done as early as the 1930s (Munch-Petersen, 1970, Palmer et al., 1941). Yet it has been during the last 20 years when most studies have been made in an attempt to more fully describe the extent and nature of this problem world wide. The summer mastitis syndrome had been often considered to be perhaps synonymous with heifer mastitis. Yet even the early studies of the 1930s revealed that the common major mastitis pathogens that are most prevalent and cause mastitis
Conflict of interest
The author (L.K. Fox) does not have a financial or personal relationship with other people or organizations that could inappropriately influence or bias the paper entitled “Prevalence, incidence and risk factors of heifer mastitis”.
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