Strategies for Identifying and Preventing Fungal Mastitis in Dairy Cows

Abstract

Mastitis is one of the most important diseases with a multifactorial aetiology that causes high economic losses in dairy industry, having a direct negative impact on the profitability of the farm and animal welfare. Fungal mastitis is widespread in dairy cows, and in recent years, fungal agents have been frequently reported as being responsible for mastitis. The aim of this study is to identify the species of fungi in various milk samples collected from cows diagnosed with clinical mastitis, in order to monitor the number of somatic cells. A total number of 30 samples of milk collected from cows diagnosed with mastitis were studied to determine if the disease was caused by the presence of fungal species or other etiological agents. In the analysed milk samples, a number of species of fungi belonging to the genera: Fusarium, Penicillium, Cladosporium and Aspergillus were identified. The presence of fungal contamination in the environment is almost ubiquitous, thereby strategies to prevent fungal mastitis in dairy farms, have become the main goal for most farmers, in order to increase the quality of raw milk.

Keywords

• dairy cows
• fungal species
• somatic cells
• prevention strategies