| Mastitis is one of the most serious and costly diseases affecting dairy cattle production. It is usually treated with antibiotics, but they have limited effects. Antibiotic-resistant bacteria may pose an increasing problem. Additionally, the risk of antibiotic residues in dairy products needs close attention. The objectives of this research were (1) to estimate the prevalence of bovine mastitis and its effects on dairy cattle production and (2) to prepare several Chinese herbal medicine preparations and examine their therapeutical effects on bovine mastitis.Beijing mastitis test (BMT) was used to determine the prevalence of subclinical mastitis in a dairy farm in Guizhou Province. In the test 434 udder quarters of 112 lactating cows were enrolled. The results showed that the incidences of subclinical mastitis at cow and quarter levels were 76.8% and 57.4% respectively. And the prevalence rate at cow level rose along with the increases of lactation number and days in lactation. A total of 175 lactating and non-lactating cows were clinically examined within a year. Of these, 58 cows showed the symptoms of clinical mastitis. The incidence of clinical mastitis was 33.1%. The daily milk production was measured before and after the BMT and quarter milk samples were collected for the determination of milk quality in 30 BMT positive and 10 negative cows chosen according to lactation number and days in lactation. The results indicated that in comparison with the negative cows the milk production loss per cow was 4.96 kg.day-1 (12.29%) on an average (P<0.01, P<0.05) in the positive cows. |
PDF Full Text Request