MAMMITIS

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 19990, 5 November 1927, Page 22 (Supplement)

MAMMITIS

CHECKING ITS SPREAD CLEANLINESS ESSENTIAL, One of the most troublesome diseases which affect dairy cows is mammitis. While to-day its spread is largely held in check by increased cleanliness in the sheds and a more scientific control of the herd, generally it is a disease which is constantly menacing New Zealand dairymen. Under hygienic methods of control, however, it can, in most instances, be prevented from spreading through the herd.

The disease is a catarrhal affection, and is limited in most cases to the delicate mucous membrane lining the milk ducts of the mammary gland. As a rule there is very little swelling and not much pain. The disease is caused by a tiny chain-forming micro-organism which attacks the mucous membrane, and by the development of its poisonous products, or toxins, causes a rapid destruction of tissue cells and leucocytes, or white blood corpuscles, which are attracted to the spot. These dead cells produce that peculiar feature of the disease—a. yellowish purulent discharge, which can be drawn from the affected quarter.

In the acute form the first symptoms are a diminution in the milk yield usually in one quarter only of the udder), a definite acidity of the milk, and a tendency for it to become rapidly coagulated. Gradually the milk assumes a dirty brownish colour, and becomes more curdly. The amount of secretion from the affected quarter diminishes owing to the thickening of the milk ducts, which finally become impervious, and the whole quarter is rendered useless.

The lesions develop slowly, and first one-quarter, then another, of the udder becomes involved, and later the milk secretion is liable to stop entirely. It will be observed in some cases that the milk does not appear to be curdled, and on settling the deposit is so very small as to be overlooked.

Undoubtedly the transmission of the disease from cow to cow is through the agency of the milker’s hands or the cups of the milking machine. This appliance, which was designed to enable the farmer to produce cleaner milk than by any other method, must be kept scrupulously clean, and be sterilised after each milking by means of repeated washings with boiling water. Before and after each milking of an affected animal, the milker’s hands and the teats and udder of the cow should be washed with some reliable disinfectant solution, such as hycol, kerol or cyllin, diluted in the proportion of one part of disinfectant to 250 parts of water, i.e., one teaspoonful to one quart.

Care must be taken not to allow any of the milk or cream from a healthy cow, or any of the dairy utensils, to become tainted with the disinfectant, as the flavour and odour might be detected in the butter. To obviate this the disinfectant, after being allowed to act for 10 minutes, should be washed off with sterilised water, e.g., water that has been just previously boiled.