Herd-specific autovaccine and antibiotic treatment in elimination of Staphylococcus aureus mastitis in dairy cattle

The aim of the present study was to compare the effectiveness of cefuroxime, herd-specific autovaccine, and cefuroxime/herdspecific autovaccine treatments in eliminating S. aureus from the milk of 45 cows with subclinical mastitis. Prior to this study, cows with S. aureus mastitis were divided into 3 groups of 15 cows each. Group 1 received cefuroxime, group 2 received the autovaccine, and group 3 received cefuroxime and the autovaccine. The antibiotic was infused into the teat canal, whereas the autovaccine was administrated in the upper udder lymph node region. It was revealed that after day 35 of the treatment S. aureus was not detected in the milk of 40% of the cows treated with antibiotic, 60% of the cows treated with the autovaccine, and 100% of the cows that underwent combined therapy. Further observation of cows selected for the current study showed that in cows treated with both cefuroxime and a herd-specific autovaccine S. aureus mastitis was not recorded for at least 2 years. In conclusion, this investigation revealed that the administration of an anti-S. aureus herd-specific autovaccine into the upper udder lymph node region combined with infusion of an appropriate antibiotic into the teat canal eliminates S. aureus and leads to prolonged udder protection against invasion by these microorganisms.