Strep. uberis Mastitis
Mastitis remains one the most important disease challenges facing dairy farmers and Strep. uberis counts as the most common cause of mastitis.
Strep. uberis causes both clinical and subclinical mastitis, that may be easy to cure or very difficult. It can be spread both in the parlour, during milking times and picked up through the dry period. Clinical cases can be very persistent and difficult to cure and subclinical cases can even go unnoticed, but in both cases infection in one cow poses a risk of infection to another cow; once present it can easily spread throughout the herd.
Not only is Strep. uberis
mastitis a problem in dairy cows, but it is a serious threat to heifers entering the milking herd. Infections picked up prior to first calving can result in high somatic cell count and clinical cases in that important first lactation.This is why in a herd where
Strep. uberis is suspected antibiotic therapy must be effective and targeted. Injectable antibiotics, including Mamyzin, are very useful when it comes to treating mastitis where Strep. uberis or other sensitive gram-positive pathogens are suspected. Mamyzin contains penethamate hydriodide, a "pro-drug" of penicillin. Penicillin is a very good antibiotic against gram-positive bacteria, but doesn’t get into the udder very well. However, a pro-drug is a chemical that concentrates in the udder, and is then changed, by the cow, into penicillin, which is ‘trapped’ at the site where it is needed. Injectable antibiotics also have the advantage of treating all 4 quarters with one injection.It is known that infections of longer duration are more difficult to cure and this is why early effective targeted therapy is essential in both clinical mastitis and high cell count cows. Herds where gram-positive pathogens are resulting in high SCC, and / or clinical cases in first lactation heifers, may also benefit from targeted therapy with Mamyzin, as demonstrated by a 49% reduction in risk of mastitis at calving in one study.
Advice on the use of Mamyzin, or other therapies, should be sought from your regular farm vet.
- 1st June 2011
