Isolation of Mycoplasma dispar from mastitis in dry cows

Authors: Moller S, Hodges RT, MacPherson M, Leach RH
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 31, Issue 4, pp 60-61, Apr 1983
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Cattle, Livestock, Production animal, Ruminant
Subject Terms: Bacterial, Mammary gland/udder, Mastitis, Infectious disease, Milk, Disease/defect
Article class: Correspondence

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Abstract: Brownlie et al. have shown that the bovine mammary gland provides a suitable environment for assessing the potential pathogenicity of bovine mycoplasmas and ureaplasmas recovered from varied sites. Mycoplasma dispar, which is considered important in the aetiology of calf pneumonia, has proved markedly pathogenic for the udder, six of seven respiratory tract isolates producing clinical mastitis when experimentally inoculated via the teat canal. Despite this potential, there appear to be no reports of the recovery of this mycoplasma species from field cases of bovine mastitis. In this letter we describe such an episode. In mid April 1981 100 cows in a Waikato factory supply dairy herd were dried off. There appeared to have been few clinical cases of mastitis during the previous lactation and these had responded satisfactorily to commonly available intramammary antibiotic preparations. At drying off, however, 35 cows five years of age or older were selected for dry cow therapy and one tube of an intramammary formulation based on organic iodine and diaminodiphenyl sulphone was infused by the farmer into each quarter…

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