Vaccination against staphylococcal mastitis

Authors: Buddle BM, Pulford HD
Publication: New Zealand Veterinary Journal, Volume 31, Issue 10, pp 182-183, Oct 1983
Publisher: Taylor and Francis

Animal type: Cattle, Livestock, Production animal, Ruminant
Subject Terms: Animal remedies/veterinary medicines, Bacterial, Immune system/immunology, Mammary gland/udder, Mastitis, Infectious disease, Milk, Disease/defect, Vaccination
Article class: Correspondence

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Abstract: Immunisation with staphylococcal vaccmes is a potential means of increasing the resistance to bacterial invasion of the udder. However, the development of an effective vaccine for control of staphylococcal mastitis in ruminants has proved to be an elusive goal. There have been numerous attempts to develop vaccines against coagulase-positive Staphylococcus areus mastitis, but very few attempts to develop vaccines using coagulase-negative staphylococci. Development of a vaccine against coagulase-negative staphylococci may help control the sub-clinical mastitis caused by these organisms and assist in the search for an effective vaccine against mastitis caused by the more pathogenic coagulase-positive S. aureus. We describe here an experiment in which ewes were immunised with live coagulase-negative staphylococcal vaccine and challenged during lactation by intramammary infusion of a homologous strain. The coagulase-negative staphylococcal strain (WV84L) was isolated from a cow with sub-clinical mastitis and identified by Dr R. T. Hodges as Staphyloccus haemolyticus (Sk). The vaccine was prepared by growing S.h. on veal infusion agar slopes and washing off the bacteria with 0.85% saline…

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