Vaccination of cows against mastitis-an alternative to antibiotics application

Federal State Budgetary Institution “Ural Federal Agrarian Scientific Research Center of the Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences”, 620142 Yekaterinburg, Russia

^* Corresponding author: nauka_sokolova@mail.ru

Abstract

Data demonstrating the effectiveness of the antimastitic vaccine in bred livestock farms in the Sverdlovsk region by examining the level of diagnosed mastitis and the index of somatic cells (SCC) in milk are given. Application of animal immunization against mastitis revealed that 6 months after the first vaccination of animals in the pedigree breeding unit and plant, the number of identified mastitis reduced by 16.6% and 7.3%, respectively, and the level of SCC in the milk of highly productive cows by 26.5% and 10.7%, respectively. 12 months after the first vaccination protocol was applied. The overall number of animals with evidence of mastitis in the pedigree breeding unit and plant was 13.3% and 7.5%, respectively. The SCC level in 1 organization was 290 thousand/ml, and in 2 - 450 thousand / ml. The research found a significant reduction in the diagnosed mastitis in animals after 32 months due to the application of the antimastitis vaccine. The overall number of diseases reduced by 30.6% in organization 1 and 26.2% in organization 2 comparing to the period of the beginning of vaccination. Results: the dynamics of decrease in asymptomatic and clinical mastitis in organization 2 comparing to the period at the time of immunization was 19.5% and 11.1%, respectively. And in organization 1, the level of asymptomatic and clinical mastitis decreased by 16.9% and 9.0%, respectively. The quantity of SCC in the milk of cows kept in the research organization 1 had a value of 152 thousand/ml, which is 83.9% lower comparing to the first period of the study. The level of SCC in the tested samples of milk of animals kept in organization 2 was 263 thousand/ml, which is 62.2% lower than this index before the application of the animal vaccination program against mastitis.