Comparative Prevalence of Streak Canal and Intramammary Microorganisms and their Contemporaneous Association in a Dairy Cow and Buffalo Herd Lacking Mastitis Control Program.

The present study was planned to investigate the prevalence of streak canal and intramammary infections in buffaloes and cows lacking any mastitis control program and to determine the contemporaneous association between streak canal and intramammary infections in these two dairy species. Streak canal swab and quarter foremilk samples were collected aseptically from 20 lactating mastitis free cows and buffaloes each in their first 2 months of second to third lactation and subjected to microbiological examination as per standard procedures. Isolates were speciated using commercially available kits. Contemporaneous association was defined as co-occurrence of a specific microorganism in streak canal swab and quarter foremilk sample of a particular teat simultaneously. The prevalence of streak canal infections as well as intramammary infections was higher in cows (91.25% and 55%, respectively) than in dairy buffaloes (73.75%, and 22.5%, respectively). Of the 78 isolates recovered from streak canal swab samples of buffaloes, Staphylococcus aureus (n=18; 23.07%) was the most predominant organism followed by S. choromogenes (n=14), E. coli (n= 6), unidentified esculin positive Streptococcus spp. (n=5). S. aureus (n=34) was the most frequent isolate recovered from the streak canals of cows followed by S. choromogenes (n=11), S. hyicus (n=8), Escherichia coli (n=8). In terms of frequency of isolation, S. aureus was the most predominant organism (n=6) recovered quarter foremilk samples of buffaloes followed by unidentified coagulase negative Staphylococcus spp. (n=3), Trueperella pyogenes (Corynebacterium pyogenes; n=3), unidentified Trueperella spp. and mixed species (n=3). In the case of dairy cows, predominant organism recovered from quarter foremilk samples included S. aureus (n=13), Streptococcus agalactiae (n=4), yeast (n=4) and mixed species (n=4). Recovery of 44 and 27 isolates, respectively in cows and buffaloes was common to both streak canal swab and quarter foremilk samples (contemporaneous association). © 2015 Friends Science Publishers [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]