Bacteriology 



Diagnosis and Treatment of Mastitis 



Staphylococci are an important 

 cause of acute or chronic mastitis in 

 many dairy herds. Methods have 

 been developed which make it pos- 

 sible to detect these pathogenic bac- 

 teria in milk samples. The manner 

 in which these organisms are spread 

 from cow to cow is being studied. 



Aureomycin has continued to give 

 highly satisfactory results for the 

 treatment of chronic and acute mas- 

 titis when administered via the teat 

 canal in an ointment base. Particu- 

 larly significant is the fact that, with 

 this drug, it was possible to cure a 

 number of cases of the long-standing, 

 chronic type of streptococcic masti- 

 tis. Many of these cases had histories 

 of producing discolored or stringy 

 milk and the majority of these quart- 

 ers had not been cured with penicil- 

 lin, even when large and repeated 

 doses were administered. While 

 staphylococcic mastitis is more diffi- 

 cult to treat than streptococcic mas- 

 titis, encouraging results have been 

 obtained with the aureomycin and 

 further studies are being made to de- 

 termine the most effective method of 

 administration. Other antibodies such 

 as Terramycin and Pendistrin (Peni- 

 cillin and Streptomycin) are also be- 

 ing tested. It should be noted that 

 cows with highly inflamed, swollen 



udders cannot be treated satisfact- 

 orily via the teat canal. 



A severe outbreak of Pseudomonas 

 aeruginosa mastitis in a dairy herd 

 has also been studied. To date, it 

 has not been possible to cure the in- 

 fected quarters by treatment with 

 aureomycin, terramycin, or strepto- 

 mycin. 



L. W. Slanetz 

 F, E. Allen 

 L. E. Scarce 



Treatment of Brucellosis (Bang's 

 Disease) With Aureomycin 



Sixteen cows in a Brucella infected 

 herd were used for this study. Ex- 

 tensive tests were first made to de- 

 termine the agglutinin litre of each 

 cow and to determine whether the 

 cows were shedding Brucella abortus 

 organisms in the milk. Twelve of the 

 cows were then given intravenous in- 

 jections of aureomycin. Some of the 

 cows also received udder infusions of 

 aureomycin and sulfamethazine oral- 

 ly. Four cows were used as controls 

 and received no treatment. The re- 

 sults to date indicate that the Bru- 

 cella infected cows have not been 

 cured by the treatments administered. 



L. W. Slanetz 

 F. E. Allen 

 C. L. Rollins 



Crops and Pastures 



Birdsfoot Trefoil Work Under Way 



The first successful seeding was 

 made on the Foss farm, where the 

 crop has been pastured for three suc- 

 cessive seasons. It appears to be 

 thicker this year in places than it 

 was during the three previous years. 

 These areas on the Foss Farm were 

 seeded for observation purposes. The 



soil is a very heavy one on which 

 birdsfoot seems to be well adapted. 



Birdsfoot trefoil has been used al- 

 so on 15 acres of low land recently 

 improved in a drainage project. 

 These areas are also for observation. 



Nine strains of trefoil were seeded 

 in August, 1949, on the Bunker field 

 as a variety test. These strains are 



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