USE OF PETRIFILM~(TM)FOR MASTITIS DIAGNOSIS AND TREATMENT PROTOCOLS

摘要

Isolation and identification of mastitis pathogens is a fundamental aspect of milk quality programs. An effective mastitis culture program requires considerable commitment of farm resource but up to 50% of submitted milk samples from cows with subclinical or clinical mastitis may not yield pathogens (Makovec and Ruegg, 2003), Some of the causes for negative results of milk samples obtained from mastitis cases includes spontaneous clearance (Eberhart et al., 1979; Smith et al., 1985), cyclical shedding pattern of chronic Staphylococcus aureus infections (Sears et al., 1990), or small number of bacterial colonies per mL of milk (Sears et al., 1990; Smith etal., 1982). Culture of milk may be negative if the only bacteria present are those that have been engulfed by phagocytes (Hill et al., 1978; Newbold et al., 1965). A variety of methods are used to improve the rate of recovery of pathogens from milk samples obtained from cows suspected of having mastitis (Dinsmore et al., 1992; Lam et al., 1996; Sol et al., 2002; Villanueva et al., 1991; tZecconi et al., 1997).