Title: Detection and monitoring of mastitis in a Brahman cattle herd located in the Colombian low tropics
Abstract: In a Brahman cattle farm (573 breeding cows) located in the lowland tropics of Colombia the weight gain of nursing calves decreased with no apparent cause and several cows had non-functional udders. Objective: to assess udder health by means of the presence of subclinical mastitis using CMT or clinical mastitis. Methods: all the cows of the farm were monitored. During 41 months, from September 2002 until January 2006, a total of 8,460 udder quarters were sampled to establish the evolution of mastitis. Cows with clinical or subclinical moderate or severe mastitis were treated with one of five antibiotics, and the effect of the treatment was determined. Descriptive statistics was conducted and disease evolution was analyzed taking in account the results of CMT in time determined to understand the evolution of the disease. Results: a total of 1,013 cows were evaluated for a first CMT. Out of 4,048 quarters examined, 17.5% (708) showed some degree of mastitis, and 249 (6.1%) of these had clinical or subclinical type 3 mastitis (49 or 1.2%, and 200 or 4.9%, respectively). One udder quarter was diagnosed useless in 5.68% of the observations. Treated cows were followed up in subsequent CMTs until complete cure was established. Conclusion: a positive effect of the antibiotic treatment was observed in 77.7% of the cases.
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-01-03
Language: en
Type: article
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