The study was undertaken to determine the prevalence and chemotherapy of dry cow mastitis. Mastitis is responsible for a wide range of health problems and economic losses in cows and is characterized by decrease in milk production, Swelling of the udder, hotness of the udder and anorexia. All lactating animals generally have a period of 6-10 weeks preceding to calving (usually annually) as a dry or resting period, a non-lactating phase. About to calving the cow remains at risk to new intra-mammary infections, especially shortly after the ‘drying off’ or termination of milking. During the dry period the prophylactic benefit of 82% reduction in the rate of intra-mammary infection is the result of the dry cow treatment with antibiotics and higher rate of eliminating infections than treating in lactation.
For this purpose, 250 Pregnant dry cows were examined for subclinical mastitis. The milk samples were collected from Pattoki and adjacent areas and California mastitis test (CMT) was performed and positive samples were furtherly processed for somatic cell count at medicine Laboratory of University of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, Lahore.
For Chemotherapy, 24 animals positive for dry cow mastitis were equally divided into 4 groups viz A, B, C and D. Each group comprising of 6 animals. The animals of group A were treated with intramammary antibiotic Cloxacilline+ Ampicillin (Masticlox ,ICI). Animals in group B were treated by injecting 2 shorts (72 hours interval) of long acting Amoxicilline (amoxy 150 L.A Floris veterinaire produkten B.V Vught the Netherland) intra muscularly. Animals in group C were treated with Cephradine (Velosef, GSK) 1g/quarter through intramammary route once. Cows in group D were served as positive control. Animals in all groups were kept under close observation for clinical mastitis until parturition. After calving, cows in each group were tested for mastitis at days 7, 14 and 21 (post calving) using CMT and
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SCC. Effectiveness of a particular treatment was determined on the basis of CMT score and SCC.
The collected samples from Pattoki and adjacent areas were processed at the Medicine laboratory at UVAS, Lahore aseptically for CMT and CMT positive samples were processed by Somatic cell count (SCC).
Overall prevalence determined which was 39.60% (99/250samples) by CMT and SCC.The efficacy of different antibiotics used in chemotherapy of dry cow mastitis was checked. The efficacy of Amoxicilline (Amoxy 150 L.A), Ampicillin+ Cloxacilline (Masticlox) and Cephradine (Velocef 1g) was recorded at day 7,14 and 21days post calving.
Group A was treated with Ampicillin +Cloxacilline (Masticlox) its efficacy was 83.33% and group B was treated with Amoxicilline (Amoxy 150 L.A) and its efficacy was 66.66% effective while the efficacy of Cephradine (Velocef 1g) was 33.33% in group C.
From this study it was concluded that CMT is more reliable test than other tests for the diagnosis of Mastitis in cows. Secondly subclinical mastitis which is an important problem of cows is significantly prevalent in dry cows in Pattoki and adjacent areas. Cloxacilline+ Ampicillin and Amoxicillin is the most effective drug while Cephradine is relatively less effective against mastitis in dry cows.