Teaming up for animal health
Determination of bacterial flora of udder cleft dermatitis in cows Engelen, Erik van DVM PhD; Gonggrijp, Maaike DVM; Dijkstra, Thomas DVM PhD; Roos, Lotte MSc; Velthuis, Annet PhD GD Animal Health, Deventer, The Netherlands
Aim The aim of this study was to determine which bacteria might be involved in Udder cleft dermatitis (UCD) by aerobic and anaerobic culture.
Introduction ACD is characterized by ulceration in the area between the udder and the hindleg. Previous research showed that in the Netherlands UCD is present on 80% of the farms and 6% of the cows contract this painful lesion. Based on the macroscopic wet appearance of UCD, it was supposed that specific bacteria might be involved in the pathogenesis.
Table 1.
Summary of UCD category compared with histology score: normal, acute inflammation, acute/subacute, subacute, chronic en chronic active dermatitis normal
acute
subacute
chronic
0
acute/ subacute 0
no lesion (score 0)
43
0
Materials and Methods
mild (score 1-2)
15
1
3
To determine which bacteria might be involved in UCD, the following procedure was used: From slaughter house, udders were sampled with no (n=40), mild (n=41) or severe UCD(n=42). From the affected udder skins, biopsies were taken for bacteriology and histology. Superficial and deep layer of the tissue were cultured separately under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Aerobic culture was done on sheep blood agar plates, anaerobic culture on columbia sheep blood agar with gram negative supplement. Also 15 udder skins of live cows, 5 of each category UCD, were sampled with use of swabbing and cultured. Cultured bacteria were identified with MALDI-TOF MS.
severe (score 3-5)
2
1
total
60
2
UCD category
Table 2.
1
21
1
42
1
1
20
17
42
4
2
42
18
128
44
UCD samples from the slaughterhouse in which the respective species were cultured from deep dermis with use of anaerobic culture on specific medium (columbia agar with gram negative supplement) UCD category
Results Trueperella pyogenes and Bacteroides pyogenes were significantly more observed in severe UCD than in the other categories. The numbers of S. aureus, E. coli, yeasts and moulds were low. Histology: in the mild and severe cases of UCD, the numbers of acute and sub/ acute lesions were low compared to the chronic lesions. UCD seems to be a chronic process. With histology, no yeasts, moulds or Treponemes could be found, invading the tissue.
total
1
chronic active 0
numbers
no lesion
mild
severe
total
28
33
26
87
Bactero誰des fragilis
1
1
Bactero誰des ovatus
1
1
4
3
14
21
Fusobacterium necrophorum (sp.)
1
1
2
Lactobacillus curvatus
1
Bactero誰des pyogenes
total
4
7
1 15
26
Conclusion We suggest that UCD has an non-infectious origin after which T. pyogenes and B. pyogenes can invade the tissue and worsen the process. We had no indication that E. coli, S. aureus, Treponemes, yeasts or moulds were implicated in this chronic process.
Table 3.
Numbers of UCD samples from the slaughterhouse in which the respective species were cultured from deep dermis with use of aerobic culture on sheep blood agar bacterium species
Category UCD
T. pyogenes
E. coli
S. aureus
samples
no lesion
0
0
3
28
mild
4
1
0
33
severe
16
4
3
26
Total
20
5
6
87
Tabel 4.
Numbers of clinical samples from which the respective species were culture with anaerobic culture on specific medium (columbia agar with gram negative supplement) UCD category no lesion
mild
severe
total
5
5
5
15
Bactero誰des pyogenes
1
4
5
Campylobacter sputorum
2
samples
Figure 1. Typical appearance of udder cleft dermatitis category: severe. Figure 2. Plates and jar for anaerobic culture, as used in the project. Figure 3. The MALDI-TOF instrument that is used for identification of the cultured bacteria.
2
Fusobacterium gonidiaformans
2
2
Fusobacterium necrophorum (sp.)
2
2
Lactobacillus brevis
1
total
4
1 8
12
Acknowledgement
The authors thank the farmers for participation in the study.This study was funded by the Dutch Product Board for Livestock and Meat (PVV) and the Dutch Dairy Commodity board (PZ).
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GDOV0933/10-16
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