Studies on Clinical, Aetiological and Antibiotic Susceptibility of Mastitis in She-camel (Camelus dromedarius) in Butana area, Sudan

Abstract

This study was performed to investigate the types of clinical

mastitis among camel herds reared in Butana region. The effects of season, age,

stage of lactation, number of calving on occurrence of mastitis causative agents

and antibiotic sensitivity of the bacterial isolates from mastitic she-camel were

included. The study also involved treatment trial in Tamboul area for selected

cases of acute and chronic mastitis. The occurrence of clinical mastitis among

319 milking camels during both summer and winter were found at the rate of

9.09% (29 case). Among camels with anti-suckling devices 69% (20 case) were

found to be mastitic. Tick infestation which causes teat lesions was also found

to increase risk to mastitis.

Three forms of clinical mastitis were diagnosed according to the obvious

clinical signs and the visible alteration of milk. Chronic form was of the highest

occurrence (72.41%) followed by acute form (24.14%) and the least was the

gangrenous form (3.45%).

The highest occurrence of clinical mastitis was found at the age between

11-15 years (65.52%). Few incidence of mastitis were detected in first stage of

lactation (17%) and increased at the middle stage (28%) and the highest was

found at late stage of lactation (55%).

This study revealed that there was a direct relationship between number

of calving and the occurrence of clinical mastitis. The highest incidence of

clinical mastitis was found at the first, second and third calving (65.52%).

The percentage of isolated Gram positive bacteria from clinical mastitis

was 81.08% and Gram negative bacteria were 18.92%. The predominant

isolated organism was Staphylococcus spp. (37.8%) followed by E.coli

(18.9%), Streptococcus spp. (13.5%), Bacillus spp. (10.8%), Micrococcus spp.

(8.1%), Corynebacterium spp. (5.4%) and Salmonella spp. (5.4%).

The antimicrobial susceptibility test of the isolated bacteria generally

showed high susceptibility to the most of the examined antimicrobial agents.

There was high sensitivity to Gentamicin, Ciprofloxacin, Cloxacillin and

Amikacin, moderate sensitively to Ampicillin/Sulbactam and Trimoxazole and

the greatest resistance was found with Tetracycline and Chloramphenicol.

The treatment trial for mastatic cases showed that the most effective

antimicrobial drugs for camel mastitis was Pen&Strep®( Procaine Penicillin, Dihydrostreptomycin Sulphare).