Evaluating the Effectiveness of Mastitis Vaccines

Introduction Mastitis control is based upon adoption of preventive control strategies including good milking hygiene, the use of properly functioning milking equipment, provision of clean and dry housing areas, sound nutritional programs and proper identification and treatment of cows that are infected with subclinical and clinical mastitis. Worldwide, many dairy farmers have adopted these procedures and produce high quality milk. However, mastitis remains the most common and costly disease of dairy cattle and many producers continue to struggle to achieve their quality goals. Mastitis results when pathogenic bacteria are able to gain entrance to the udder, overcome the cows’ immune defenses, establish an infection and produce inflammation of udder secretory tissue. The use of vaccination to control infectious diseases in dairy cattle is common and vaccination against mastitis pathogens is a control strategy used by some dairy farmers. Research on mastitis vaccines has been conducted for at least 30 years and several mastitis vaccines are commercially available. The objective of this paper is to review current concepts about vaccines used to control mastitis in dairy cattle.