mastitis control in dairy cows with vaccination

The objective of this review article was to summarize the most recent clinical field trials that have been published evaluating the use of different types of vaccines against mastitis pathogens in dairy cows. mastitis is one of the most economically devastating diseases in dairy cattle worldwide. infections of the mammary gland remain a frequent disease of dairy ruminants that negatively affect animal welfare, milk quality, farmer serenity, and farming profitability and cause an increase in the use of antimicrobials. mastitis, even subclinical, affects milk quality and can be a source of foodborne pathogens, such as livestock-associated methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus. vaccine development against common udder pathogens has been advancing in the past few decades. both commercial vaccines and herd-specific autovaccines using killed whole bacterial cells are commonly used in dairy herds with less than satisfactory outcomes in most cases. vaccines against staphylococcus aureus and staphylococcus agalactiae contained either the whole organism (cellular lysates, inactive, and attenuated vaccines) or subunits (toxins, surface proteins, and polysaccharides) while for e. coli, the mutant core antigen j5 was used most commonly. vaccines were also classified as mono or polyvalent according to the number of targeted pathogens they contained. the vaccines are made against other species including streptococcus dysgalactiae, klebsiella, streptococcus uberis, and salmonella. vaccination is one tool that could be used to prevent mastitis. however, regardless of the type of vaccine used, it alone is not necessarily effective or economical, especially in dairy herds with high mastitis rates. the combination of vaccination and the application of other infection control procedures, such as excellent milking hygiene procedures, treatment of clinical cases, segregation, and culling of known infected cows are important preventative measures that usually result in a significant reduction in the incidence and duration of intramammary infections.