Vol. 12, Issue 3 (2023)

Author(s):
A Janus, PM Deepa, Jess Vergis, Biju P Habeeb, Vinu David and K Vijayakumar

Abstract:
A total of 110 lactating dairy cows with a history of recurrent and / or unresponsive clinical mastitis were selected for the study. The information regarding age, breed, parity, stage of lactation of the animals and their clinical signs were recorded and analysed. The prevalence of mastitis was found to be highest in animals of 5 to 6 years age (77.27%), in fourth parity (42.73%) and in the first three months of lactation (45.45%). Majority of the animals showed changes in the milk only (50.90%) whereas changes in the milk and udder without systemic signs were observed less frequently (35.35%). Flakes in milk with discolouration was exhibited by 50 percent of the animals and there was moderate swelling in majority of the animals. Cultural isolation and biochemical characterisation of the bacterial isolates from the milk samples revealed the presence of Staphylococcus spp (74.54%), E. coli (7.27%), Klebsiella spp (6.36%), Micrococcus spp (1.81%). and Streptococcus spp (1.81%). Staphylococci were the predominant isolate in the cases of clinical mastitis. Hence moderate changes in the udder or no changes in the udder can be correlated with recurrent staphylococcal mastitis.