Genomic analysis of European bovine Staphylococcus aureus from clinical versus subclinical mastitis.

Intramammary infections (IMI) with Staphylococcus aureus are a common cause of bovine mastitis and can result in both clinical (CM) or subclinical mastitis (SCM). Although bacterial isolates of S. aureus differ in their virulence potential it is largely unclear which bacterial virulence factors are responsible for increased clinical severity.

Use of inline measures of l-lactate dehydrogenase for classification of posttreatment mammary Staphylococcus aureus infection status in dairy cows.

An automated method for determining whether dairy cows with subclinical mammary infections recover after antibiotic treatment would be a useful tool in dairy production. For that purpose, inline l-lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) measurements was modeled using a dynamic linear model; the variance parameters were estimated using the expectation-maximization algorithm. The method used to classify cows as infected or uninfected was based on a multiprocess Kalman filter.

Changes in milk yield, lactate dehydrogenase, milking frequency, and interquarter yield ratio persist for up to 8 weeks after antibiotic treatment of mastitis.

Within the dairy industry, the appearance of milk and withdrawal time due to antibiotic residuals in the milk are used to determine recovery status after cases of treated mastitis. However, both milk production and dairy cow behavior have been shown to be affected after the normalization of milk appearance, indicating that animals may not have fully recovered. The aim of the present study was to describe the changes in milk yield, lactate dehydrogenase activity, milking frequency, and interquarter yield ratio (defined as the coefficient of variation between the active quarters) after cases of naturally occurring mastitis with special focus on the recovery period after antibiotic treatment.

Behavioral changes in freestall-housed dairy cows with naturally occurring clinical mastitis.

Dairy cows exhibit classic signs of sickness behavior during mastitis. However, knowledge about the consequences of naturally occurring mastitis in freestall-housed dairy cows, milked in automatic milking systems, is lacking. The aim of the present study was to describe the behavior of dairy cows after diagnosis and antibiotic treatment of mastitis.

Short communication: Changes in gait symmetry in healthy and lame dairy cows based on 3-dimensional ground reaction force curves following claw trimming.

Lameness is a frequent health problem in dairy cows. This preliminary study aimed to detect gait differences between healthy and lame walking cows using 3-dimensional force plates. We examined left-right leg symmetry changes of healthy and lame Holstein dairy cows following claw trimming.