Uso prodente e ragioanto degli antibiotici negli animali di interesse zootecnico

Viene riportato l'importanza pratica degli antibiotici nella produzione del latte. Tuttavia, le norme e la pressione dell'opinione pubblica stanno determinando la necessit\ue0 di ridurre il loro uso. Divengono quindi necessari nuovi approcci terapeutici e la necessit\ue0 di ridurre il rischio di malattia. La relazione affronta da un punto di vista scientifico e pratico tali argomenti

Improve mastitis detection through better decisions

Despite all efforts to prevent, control and treat mastitis produced over the last 60 years, this disease is still one of the major sources of dairy farms costs worldwide. In addition to the direct and indirect costs, the need to improve the welfare cow and to reduce the use of antibiotics, increase the burden represented by mastitis. Prevention has been always defined as \u201cthe key\u201d to control mastitis and to reduce the consequences of the disease. Therefore, several different approaches have been suggested, some of them were very successful (i.e. pre and post dipping), while others much less. Prevention should be based on identification of risk factors and on the reduction of these risks. However, prevention is also based on monitoring cow (and udder) status and on identifying alterations potentially leading to a disease status. Often, this latter approach is defined as early diagnosis, but is a very reductive way to define this important part of prevention. There are several systems to monitor cow and udder status, some very well-known and simple (i.e. individual SCC, udder hygiene score, teat score), other more sophisticated and based on the availability of new technologies (i.e. conductivity, NAGase, LDH, IR sensors). Regardless of the system used to monitor mastitis, the key issue is to decide when the cow or the udder are moving from a healthy status to a diseased one and, even more important, what to do when this deviation is observed or registered. Making the right decision is crucial for an effective mastitis control and it will be even more important as long as the use of antibiotics will be constrained. Monitor systems are based on one or few marker(s) and the deviation of the marker(s) suggest the presence of a diseases animal. However, the \u201cdeviation\u201d depends on thresholds defined for an ideal situation, not easily reproducible in practice. Moreover, even if dairy herds often appear very similar, there are significant differences among cows\u2019 responses among herds for many different physiological and pathological markers. Finally, dairy farms are also included in different social and economic environments and these imply that the decisions taken after the same "deviation" may be different as social and economic factors are different. Therefore, marker thresholds, benchmarks, and decision tools should consider economic and biological differences in order to identify the proper approach to solve herd or cow specific problems. The real challenge for researcher and practitioners is not the application of the new technologies, but to identify how to fit these old and new approaches and technologies to the specific dairy herd in order to improve cow health and welfare and to increase herd sustainability

Factors affecting the patterns of total amount and proportions of leukocytes in Bovine milk

Differential leukocyte count (DSCC) in milk is considered important to improve knowledge of udder immune response. The investigations on milk DSCC were limited by the techniques available until recently, when a high-throughput tool to perform DSCC opened the way to explore these factors in rapid and economically sustainable ways. We hypothesized that DSCC alone does not fully describe the pattern of these cells, since the total amount is also influenced by milk yield and SCC. Therefore, this study was designed to describe DSCC and total amount of different leukocytes in milk during the course of lactation in cows differing in parity and in levels of SCC. This study considered 17,939 individual milk tests from 12 dairy herds in Lombardy Region, where DCC testing was applied in the period of February 2018\u2013December 2019 (23 months). The samples were divided into two subsets\u2014\u201chealthy\u201d (HS) with SCC 64200,000 cells/mL and \u201cinflamed\u201d (IS) with SCC >200,000 cells/mL. Cow in HS have a P + LT average between 5.0 7 108 and 3.0 7 109 cells. In IS cows, the values were 1.6 7 1010 and 2.5 7 1010. Therefore, the presence of a well-defined inflammatory process increased the overall amount of polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) and lymphocytes (LYM) of 1 log, from 1 7 109 to 1 7 1010. The assessment of the total amount of PMN and LYM, to our knowledge, have never been reported in scientific literature; the values observed may be proposed as benchmarks for studies on udder immune response. When data were analyzed by days in milk (DIM),they showed that cows in first and second lactation have a significantly lower amount of PMN + LYM, when compared to cows in third and higher lactation. However, these differences are numerically not very large (7%), and suggest that, in healthy animals, the number of immune cells is kept as constant as possible. In IS, the analysis of trends based on DIM showed that both DSCC and P + LT have a significant negative trend. These data suggest that only in this group, the presence of high SCC as lactation proceeds is associated with a progressive increase in the number of macrophages. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study describing the pattern of DSCC and the total amount of PMN + LYM in relation to parity, days in milk, and SCC, and it may be considered as the first contribution in the investigation on mammary gland immune response by the means of differential cell counts in milk

Pattern characterization of genes involved in non-specific immune response in Staphylococcus aureus isolates from intramammary infections

Staphylococcus aureus isolated from mammary gland are characterized by different genetic patterns. Ninety four isolates from 33 dairy herds were analyzed by the means of amicroarray to investigate S. aureus virulence patterns and the distribution of genes believed to be involved in immune evasion. None of the 94 isolates considered were MRSA. However, 50% of the isolates belonged to complexes related to MRSA and to human diseases, while only about 25% of them can be considered as exclusively of bovine origin. The distribution of clonal complexes and the different gene patterns observed confirmed the presence of an influence of geographical localization. The assessment of the influence of genes related to immune evasion on quarter milk cell count showed as four of them showed to be significantly associated to an increase quarter milk SCC. These genes could be potential target for developing new vaccines against S.aureus

Influence of dietary starch contents on milk composition of Friesian cows in early lactation

The aim of this research was to evaluate the effect of the modification of diet starch content on milk composition and onits nitrogen and mineral fractions. Ten Italian Friesian primiparous cows were randomly assigned to two groups and feda basal total mixed ration, (BSD, basal starch diet, 24.9% starch/DM) until 42 days in milking (DIM). At 43 DIM, 5 animals(control group, CTR) continued to receive the same ration and the remaining 5 cows (experimental group, EXP)were fed a low starch diet (LSD, 21.0% starch/DM) until 65 DIM, followed by a high starch diet (HSD, 28.3% starch/DM)66 to 85 DIM. From 86 DIM until 94 DIM, cows of the EXP group returned to the BSD. Milk samples were collected at 37,50, 60, 70, 80, 94 DIM. Starch intake was lower for EXP at DIM 50, 60 and higher at 70 and 80 DIM (P < 0.01). Milkyield and fat corrected milk (FCM) did not vary between groups and times of sampling, but HSD caused a significant (P< 0.05) reduction of milk fat in the EXP animals. NPN and MUN contents were affected by dietary treatments at 80 DIM(P < 0.05), being higher in CTR and lower in EXP group in comparison to their basal values (37 DIM). The αs1-caseinpercentages at 80 and 94 DIM increased in the EXP but not in the CTR group, and a marked decrease of αs2-casein percentagefor the EXP group at 94 DIM was observed (P < 0.05). Milk sodium content decreased at 80 and 94 DIM and thesodium to potassium ratio was reduced after the return to the basal diet in the EXP group (94 DIM), indicating that dietarystarch variations can be involved in the control of epithelium integrity of mammary gland in early lactation

From &#8220;One Health&#8221; to &#8220;One Communication&#8221;: the contribution of communication in Veterinary Medicine to public health

Despite the fact that health communication is a discipline developed only recently, its importance in human medicine is well recognized. However, it is less considered in veterinary medicine, even if it has the potential to improve public health because of the role of veterinary medicine in public health. For this reason, an One Health approach is useful for communication as well. This approach leads to a \u201cOne Communication\u201d concept, which is the result of the synergy in communicative efforts both in human and in veterinary medicine. Our analysis explores the potential of communication in several veterinary fields: institutions, food safety, companion animal and food-producing animal practice, pharmacology and drugs, wildlife fauna and environment. In almost all the areas of veterinary activity communication can contribute to human health. It takes many forms and use several channels, and this variety of communicative opportunities represent a challenge for veterinarians. For this reason, the communication course should be included in the curricula of Veterinary Medicine Schools. As One Health, One Communication is a strategy for expanding collaborations in health communication and it will enhance public health

Differential Somatic Cell Count as a Marker for Changes of Milk Composition in Cows with Very Low Somatic Cell Count

The recent availability of a high-throughput milk analyzer performing a partial differential somatic cell count (DSCC) opened new opportunities in investigations on bovine udder health. This analyzer has a potential limitation on the accuracy of measurements when the somatic cell count (SCC) is below 50,000 cells/mL, values characterizing a good proportion of lactating cows in many herds. We obtained data for cows below this threshold, assessed the repeatability of these measurements and investigated the relationship between DSCC and udder health, milk composition and yield. Overall, 3022 cow milk test records performed on a Fossomatic&trade; 7/DC (Foss A/S, Hiller&oslash;d, Denmark) were considered; 901 of them had an SCC &le; 50,000 cells/mL. These latter samples were analyzed by qPCR to identify the presence of bacteria. Overall, 20.75% of the samples (187) were positive. However, the health status did not have any significant association with DSCC. The analysis of the association of DSCC on milk fat, protein and casein showed a significant decrease in their proportions as the DSCC increased, whereas it was not observed for milk yield and lactose. Therefore, DSCC in very low SCC cows may be suggested as a marker to identify early changes in milk composition

Herd and animal factors affect the variability of total and differential somatic cell count in bovine milk

This study investigated factors affecting the variability of somatic cell traits in bovine milk. Animal had greater influence on somatic cell score (SCS) and differential somatic cell count (DSCC) compared to herd factors. Herds producing high average of daily milk energy were characterized by lower SCS and DSCC compared to the low average daily milk energy herds. The SCS and DSCC were higher in Holstein-Friesian than in Simmental, and during summer with respect to the other seasons. Older cows at the end of lactation showed the highest content of somatic cell traits. These results are helpful for the management of somatic cell traits at herd and animal levels

Antimicrobial Effects of Conditioned Medium From Amniotic Progenitor Cells in vitro and in vivo : toward Tissue Regenerative Therapies for Bovine Mastitis

There is increasing evidence to suggest that, in addition to their regenerative effect, mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs), and their secretome have an anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial role in the innate immune response in conditions such as sepsis. However, there is no published information on the effect of MSCs in bovine mastitis. Mastitis often results in extensive tissue damage due to multi-microorganism co-infection. This study investigated the ability of amniotic-derived conditioned medium (CM), in vitro and in vivo, to counteract microbial action and restore healthy tissue capable of milk production. Following determination of a dose\u2013response curve, 10,000 colony-forming units (CFU) of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) were inoculated into bovine mammary epithelial cell culture with and without 10% CM (supplemented either at the time of bacteria inoculation or after 4 h). Acridine orange staining was used to assess cell viability/apoptosis. Additionally, an in vivo study was performed using 48 dairy cows with acute and chronic mastitis, treated with CM (treated group) or antibiotics (control group). In vitro results showed that CM can attenuate bacterial growth, as evaluated by the number of CFU. After 24 h of culture with S. aureus, 89.67% of mammary epithelial cells treated with CM were still alive, whereas all cells cultured without CM were dead. Rates of epithelial cell survival (60.67%) were similar when CM was added 4 h after bacteria inoculation. There was no difference in somatic cell count between cases of acute mastitis in the CM-treated or control group in the in vivo study. However, relapses in chronic mastitis were less common in the group receiving CM. Our results show that CM is able to mitigate bacterial growth in vitro and may be particularly useful in the treatment of chronic mastitis, aiding restoration of milk production in cows that would otherwise be removed from the production cycle