Abstract
BackgroundStaphylococcus aureus is a common udder pathogen in dairy cows, and may cause severe mastitis problems in some herds. In herds where normal control measures are not successful, vaccination might be an additional tool to use if sufficiently efficient. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of a commercially available vaccine (Startvac®, Hipra, Spain) in two commercial Swedish dairy herds where the control programs for S. aureus mastitis had been unsuccessful. Within each herd cows were randomly assigned to vaccine or control groups, and effects on udder health and milk production during 120 days after calving, and survival during the following lactation were evaluated.ResultsA field study was performed in two high producing Swedish herds having approximately 600 (herd A) and 200 (herd B) cows. During 12 months, cows with odd numbers were vaccinated three times around calving according to label protocol, while cows with even numbers constituted the not vaccinated control group. Quarter milk samples for bacteriological culturing were collected from all cases of clinical and subclinical mastitis. The outcome was evaluated during 120 days after calving using data on SCC and daily milk yield at monthly milk recordings, and incidence of mastitis due to S. aureus, coagulase-negative staphylococci, streptococci and coliforms. Cow survival throughout lactation was also studied. In herd A, 239 and 240 cows were included in the vaccinated and control groups, respectively. Corresponding numbers for herd B was 126 and 151 cows. Significant differences between vaccinated and control groups were not found in any of the parameters investigated.ConclusionsVaccination with a commercial polyvalent vaccine did not have any beneficial effects on udder health, milk production or survival in two commercial dairy herds with mastitis problems due to S. aureus.
Highlights
Staphylococcus aureus is a common udder pathogen in dairy cows, and may cause severe mastitis problems in some herds
Reasons for exclusion were that cows were dried off early, wrongly vaccinated or not vaccinated, culled or died, forgotten, and dried off before slaughter, or had missing data on vaccination date, could not be caught on pasture, were not pregnant/had aborted, and calved earlier than planned
somatic cell count (SCC) and milk production at monthly milk recordings The SCC and milk production at the first four milk recordings after calving per herd and treatment are presented in Figs. 1 and 2, respectively
Summary
Staphylococcus aureus is a common udder pathogen in dairy cows, and may cause severe mastitis problems in some herds. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the efficacy of a commercially available vaccine (Startvac®, Hipra, Spain) in two commercial Swedish dairy herds where the control programs for S. aureus mastitis had been unsuccessful. Staphylococcus aureus is the most common bacterial finding in both subclinical (SCM) and clinical (CM) mastitis in Swedish dairy cows [1, 2] as well as in dairy cows in many other countries [3, 4] Such udder infections are of substantial economic importance for the dairy industry. A few field studies have, been published [9, 10] Those studies, as well as the one included in the vaccine registration files, were performed in countries where the herd structure, production level and udder health is different from the Swedish situation. One [10] of the studies mentioned above include information on such data
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