An Overview on the Epidemiology and Diagnosis of Bovine Mastitis

Abstract

Mastitis is the most common infectious disease encountered in intensively –farmed dairy cattle (Quinn et al., 2002). It is inflammation of the parenchyma of the mammary gland regardless of the cause. Mastitis is therefore characterized by a range of physical and chemical change in the milk include discoloration, the present of clot and present of large number of leukocyte (Radostits et al., 2007). In other words, bovine mastitis a response to ascending infection of the gland by the way of the teat canal (Jubb et al., 1993). There is swelling, heat, pain and edema in the mammary gland in many clinical cases. However, a large proportion of mastitic gland is not readily detectable by manual palpation or by visual examination of the milk strip cup; these quarters represent subclinical infection (Radostits et al., 2007).