Efficacy and safety of lactoferrin as a new preventive reagent for bovine mastitis

摘要

Mastitis is the most costly disease of dairy cows throughout the world. Intramarnmary infections during non-lactating periods can cause mastitis after calving, and the reduction of bacterial counts in the mammary gland is the ideal preventive method. Since lactoferrin has bactericidal effects and priming effects on innate immunity, we investigated whether an intramammary infusion of bovine lactoferrin (bLf) could safely prevent mastitis. A total of 398 healthy mammary quarters of 104 cows were used for the study. Thirty-eight mammary quarters showing high bacterial count in milk were excluded. To evaluate the preventive effect of bLf on clinical mastitis development, the remaining 360 mammary quarters were examined until 3 months after calving. A bLf group was infused once intramammarily with bLf 7-14 d after cessation of milking and the other group was kept as a non-treated control. The numbers of quarters in the bLf group and the control group were 179 and 181, respectively.