Short communication: Longitudinal study of quarter-level somatic cell responses after naturally occurring, nonsevere clinical mastitis diagnosed as culture negative, or caused by Escherichia coli or Klebsiella pneumoniae, and randomly assigned to a no-treatment group or to receive intramammary ceftiofur.

ABSTRACT

The objective of this study was to describe weekly quarter-level somatic cell count (QSCC) after occurrence of nonsevere clinical mastitis (CM) that was diagnosed as culture negative, or caused by Escherichia coli or Klebsiella pneumoniae. All cases occurred in cows enrolled in negatively, controlled randomized clinical trials. We hypothesized that after occurrence of CM, QSCC patterns would vary among etiologies and this effect would not be mitigated by treatment using intramammary (IMM) ceftiofur. Data from two previously published randomized clinical trials performed on 3 Wisconsin dairy farms were used. Only cases confirmed as culture negative (NG) or E. coli or Kleb. pneumoniae (GRAMNEG) were used for analysis. In NG, cows were assigned to no antimicrobial treatment (negative control, n = 44) or 5 d of once daily IMM (n = 41) infusions with an approved product containing ceftiofur hydrochloride. In GRAMNEG, cows were assigned to IMM treatment with the same ceftiofur product for 2 different durations (2 d, n = 36; or 8 d, n = 38) or no antimicrobial treatment (negative control, n = 36). For quarters enrolled in NG, no significant differences were identified for weekly QSCC between quarters in the treated or negative control groups (5.4 log10SCC for both groups). For quarters enrolled in GRAMNEG, no significant differences were identified for QSCC between quarters that received the 2-d (6.2 log10SCC) or 8-d (6.3 log10SCC) IMM treatment or were in the negative control group (6.0 log10SCC). At the pathogen level, regardless of treatment, QSCC varied among pathogens and log10SCC were 5.4 (culture negative), 5.8 (E. coli), and 6.2 (Kleb. pneumoniae). Patterns of QSCC of CM diagnosed as culture negative and E. coli were similar in magnitude and time to resolution of the inflammatory response. In conclusion, as compared to CM diagnosed as culture negative or caused by E. coli, CM caused by Kleb. pneumoniae was associated with poorer outcomes. Regardless of IMM ceftiofur treatment, the immune response of the cow resulted in rapid reduction of SCC of quarters diagnosed as culture negative and quarters with CM caused by E. coli. In contrast, the SCC remained elevated for quarters with CM caused by Kleb. pneumoniae and a greater proportion of those cases remained chronically infected.