UDDER-HALVE-WISE COMPARATIVE PREVALENCE OF CLINICAL AND SUB-CLINICAL MASTITIS IN LACTATING GOATS WITH THEIR BACTERIAL PATHOGENS AND ANTIBIOTIC SENSITIVITY PATTERNS IN BANGLADESH

Goats are the major parts of subsidiary economy of the rural people in Bangladesh. Dairy animals including lactating goats are prone to the intramammary infection (IMI) and associated with a lot of economic impact on the farmers but the reports on caprine mastitis are very limited in inland literature. This study was undertaken to determine the udder-halve-wise comparative prevalence of clinical and sub-clinical caprine mastitis with their associated bacterial pathogens and antibiotic sensitivity patterns during the period from January to May 2010. The teat and udder of a lactating population of 1025 Black Bengal goats maintained under rural (village) condition in two different districts (Joypurhat and Mymensingh) of Bangladesh were physically examined, of which 54 (5.27%) goats had clinical mastitis which constituted as experimental animals for this study. Of the 54 selected goats, 59 (54.63%) udder-halves were affected with clinical mastitis whereas the remaining 49 (45.37%) udder-halves of the selected goats were found physically normal. Out of 59 udder-halves, 49 (90.74%) were unilaterally and 5 (9.26%) were bilaterally affected with clinical mastitis. The prevalence of clinical mastitis was found significantly (p < 0.01) higher in left udder-haves (H = 47; 79.66%) in comparison to the right (H = 12; 20.34%) udder-halves. Milk samples collected from all the 108 udder-halves were examined bacteriologically, of which 102 (94.44%) udder-halves had bacterial infection. No significant differences was observed on the status of bacterial pathogens between clinically (H = 55; 93.22%) and sub-clinically (H = 47; 95.92%) affected udder-halves, and between the single (CH = 45; 76.27% and SCH = 35; 71.43%) and mixed (CH = 10; 16.95% and SCH = 12; 24.49%) bacterial infections in both the clinical and sub-clinical mastitis udder-halves. The major bacterial pathogens isolated were Staphylococcus spp. which showed to be highest frequency (38.98%), followed by Escherichia coli (27.12%) and Bacillus spp. (10.17%) as a single clinical IMI whereas mixed IMI were also detected in both clinically and sub-clinically affected udder-halves. Antibiotic sensitivity results showed a relatively high level of resistance to ampicillin, amoxycillin and streptomycin, whereas gentamicin and ciprofloxacin were found to be the most effective drugs. These results indicate the high prevalence of sub-clinical mastitis in apparently normal quarters of lactating goats than those had clinical mastitis in other udder-halves, and therefore, there is a need for the prudent use of antibacterial in animal health and production through bacteriological and antibiogram studies in Bangladesh.DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjvm.v9i2.13456