The role of bacterial pathogens in coliform mastitis in sows Zur Bedeutung bakterieller Erreger bei der coliformen Mastitis der Sau

1 Summary Even in modern piglet production, mastitis and lactation failure in sows represent a considerable health problem post partum, affecting in its consequences both the sow and her piglets. Known as a multifactorial syndrome, Mastitis-Metritis- Agalactia (MMA) has been topic of several studies investigating possible influenc- ing factors at farm and sow level in the recent past. However, there is a lack of current investigations on the causative pathogens, especially with advanced laboratory methods and with an adequate control group of healthy animals. Therefore, 1026 milk samples from coliform mastitis (CM)-affected, and 972 samples from healthy sows on six farms were examined bacteriologically in this study. The spectrum of isolated bacteria did not differ significantly between dis- eased and healthy animals for most species, with Escherichia coli as predominant species with 70.4% positive samples from diseased, and 78.0% positive samples from healthy animals. Furthermore, other Enterobacteriaceae, Staphylococcaceae, Streptococcaceae and Enterococcaceae were isolated both from CM-affected and non-affected animals. The similar bacteria distribution underlines the multifacto- rial pathogenesis of CM: Only with further adverse - endogen or exogen - factors being present, ubiquitous bacteria from the sow's environment can contribute to the development of clinical signs of infection.