Using a natural exposure trial design, the goal of our study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of an iodine teat disinfectant with barrier properties and a high level of free iodine relative to a conventional iodine teat disinfectant with no barrier properties and low levels of free iodine. During the 18 wk of the trial, quarter milk samples were collected every 2 wk from 385 dairy cows from 2 herds. Cows on both farms were assigned in a balanced way according to milk yield, number of lactation, days in milk, somatic cell count (SCC) and microbiology culture pretrial into one of following groups: nonbarrier post milking teat disinfectant (NBAR; n = 195 cows; 747 quarters) or barrier postmilking teat disinfectant (BAR; n = 190 cows; 728 quarters). Afterward, at each scoring date every 2 wk, milk SCC was quantified in samples from all mammary quarters and microbiologic culture was only performed on milk samples with SCC >200,000 cells/mL for multiparous cows and SCC >100,000 cells/mL for primiparous cows. A new intramammary infection (NIMI) was defined when a quarter had milk SCC <200,000 cells/mL for multiparous cows and <100,000 cells/mL for primiparous without microorganism isolation, and in a subsequent sampling visit had milk SCC >200,000 cells/mL for multiparous cows and >100,000 cells/mL for primiparous cows, and positive microorganism isolation. A quarter could have several NIMI, but only 1 case per specific pathogen was considered. The most frequently isolated microorganism group on both farms was Streptococcus spp. (6.25% of total mammary quarters), followed by coagulase-negative staphylococci (3.6%) and Corynebacterium spp. (1.5%). In the present study, an interaction occurred between treatment and week of trial on the incidence risk of NIMI. Quarters disinfected with BAR had 54 and 37% lower odds of NIMI than quarters disinfected with NBAR at 8 and 16 wk of the trial, respectively; whereas at other weeks of the study both products had similar incidence risks of NIMI. Overall, teats disinfected with BAR had 46% lower odds of acquiring a clinical mastitis than those disinfected with NBAR. We concluded that the postmilking teat disinfectant with barrier properties and higher free iodine content reduced the risk of clinical mastitis, although differences in new infections were detected at only weekly time points.

No abstract

On page 3931, the description of the Della Barrier teat disinfectant product was incorrect. The final sentence of the first paragraph of the Materials and Methods section should read (correction in bold) as follows: "Cows were assigned randomly to a group dipped with Della Soft (DeLaval, Tumba, Sweden; 0.5% iodine, 1-2 mg/kg free iodine, 2% emollients) postmilking (NBAR; n = 195 cows; 747 quarters) or the group dipped with Della Barrier (DeLaval; 1% iodine, 12-14 mg/kg free iodine, 10% emollients) postmilking (BAR; n = 190; 728 quarters)." The authors regret the error.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of the antibiotic therapy associated with vaccination on the microbiological cure rate of subclinical mastitis caused by Staphylococcus aureus in lactating dairy cows. A total of five herds, from which 72 cows (120 mammary quarters - MQ) were diagnosed with S. aureus subclinical mastitis, were included in this study. Cows were randomly allocated to one of three treatment groups: a) Control (no treatment); b) ATB (antibiotic therapy); and c) ATB+VAC (antibiotic therapy plus vaccination against S. aureus). Intramammary treatment consisted of twice-daily infusion of ampicillin 75mg + cloxacillin 200mg, for 5 days. Parenteral treatment was done by injection of a single dose (7.5mg/kg) of enrofloxacin, on the first day of the treatment protocol. Vaccinated cows received three doses of a commercial vaccine 14 days before treatment (d-14), on the first day of treatment protocol (d1), and 14 days after the treatment protocol (d+14). Non-treated cows had a lower cure rate (0.06) than cows treated with ATB (0.84) and ATB+VAC (0.85). No difference in cure rate was observed between cows treated with ATB and ATB+VAC. On the other hand, vaccinated cows had lower somatic cell count (SCC) after 28 days of the treatment protocols (4.76 log10) than non-treated cows (5.37 log10). In conclusion, treatment with intramammary ampicillin and cloxacillin, associated with intramuscular enrofloxacin presented a high cure rate for SCM caused by S. aureus during lactation. The use of vaccination against S. aureus in association with antibiotic therapy did not increase the cure rate of MQ during lactation, but it was effective in reducing the SCC when compared to non-treated MQ. Although to ensure that the decrease of the SCC in ATB+VAC group was associated with the vaccination, the study should have included an additional group of only vaccinated cows, without antimicrobial therapy, with was not done in the present study, and therefore is one of the limitations of the experimental protocol used.