| FECAL COLIFORM (E. coli) AND MASTITIS ON THE FARM Jim Bynum 7/17/07 When EPA decided to create toxic and hazardous sludge dumps out of our farmland, some smart young Ph.D, had to figure how to fool not only farmers but other smart young Ph.D's. EPA's Office of Water already used a coliform test to indicate fecal/sewage contamination of drinking water. The smart young Ph.D thought he could sell the idea that fecal coliform was an indicator that pathogenic disease organisms might be in fecal sewage sludge. Not only that, he thought they might accept that 1,000 most probable number (mpn) of E. coli per gram might indicate the lack of pathogens in Class A sludge or even that 2,000.000 mpn of E. coli per gram might only indicate the lack of pathogens in Class B sludge and it could be sold or given a way, if EPA just told people the bacteria was a coliform that didn't actually cause diseases. The working theory is that coliforms are environmental disease organisms that might kill you, but they are not pathogens. This little sales pitch has worked for much longer than it should have. Humm, might he be a Cornell graduate? When Cornell scientists Ellen Z. Harrison, Murray B. McBride and David R. Bouldin published their work "A Case for Caution" Land application of sewage sludges: an appraisal of the US regulations in 1999, the smart young Ph.D's at EPA tried to get them fired. And they didn't even address the coliform issue. Coliform: relating to, resembling, or being E. coli. Escherichia coli (E. coli), a thermotolerant rod-shaped member of the coliform group, can be distinguished from most other coliforms by its ability to ferment lactose at 44°C, and by its growth and colour reaction on certain types of culture media. Where have all the scientists gone? Lets blame it on the farmers, after all their cattle and dairy herds are infected with E. coli, and they send them to slaughter when they get sick. How can anyone argue otherwise. Well,remember the magic, these coliform bacterial organisms do no harm to humans? There are no victims. However, veterinarians know better. They just have a small problem. Land grant colleges and Universities have a problem when they are dealing with science that conflicts with a government agency's stated position such as - coliform do not cause disease when coliform contaminated sludge and reclaimed water is used on grazing farmland. However, some scientist figure the government agency can't complain when Veterinarian medicine uses the word coliform and defines the bacterial organisms causing so much economic damage to farmers and disease across the nation. For years, streptococci were the most prevalent bacteriological cause of mastitis until states started promoting colifom contamined sludge for farmland. Cornell - New York Mastitis is inflammation of the mammary gland as a result of invasion through the teat canal by disease causing organisms. There are two categories of mastitis--contagious and environmental. The contagious type of mastitis is usually passed from cow to cow typically in the milking parlor, or through handling. Environmental mastitis is broken down into two groups as well: streptococcal and coliform. The group of coliforms that commonly cause mastitis includes E. coli, Klebsiella, and Enterobacter. Following the entrance of coliform bacteria the cow may have sudden onset of fever, loss of appetite, diarrhea, shivering and may go down. This is due to the poisons produced by the bacteria entering the cows blood and lymph systems. Later the infected quarter may swell and be warm and painful. The discharge may be watery or bloody or there may be large thick clots. Most cows with coliform mastitis that survive will have little residual damage but a few become chronic or lose the affected quarter and some are culled due to continued poor health. http://nyschap.vet.cornell.edu/module/mastitis/section1/coliform%20fact%20sheet.pdf Coliform mastitis can be treated with antibiotics, but this can release endotoxins and can cause milk withdrawal. Untreated mastitis can cause a quarter of the udder to drop in, or cease milk production, and lower the immune response in the animal leaving it open to other illnesses. The invasion of one or more quarters of a cows udder by bacteria of the type called coliforms can produce life threatening illness. These bacteria, E. coli, Klebsiella, Enterobacter and Citrobacter may live in the barn environment in bedding, http://www.hygieialabs.com/coli.html UC Davis - California UC Davis Veterinary fact sheet will tell you coliform infected cattle may have to be marketed early or they may die. But the fact sheet doesn't explain what a coliform is or why its not a pathogen. Coliform mastitis has become the predominate form of severe clinical mastitis in dairy herds that routinely maintain control of contagious mastitis. Despite the use of J-5 type vaccines and attention to cow comfort and bedding sanitation, coliform mastitis continues to reduce milk production, increase the risk of early marketing and kill infected cows. The purpose of this article is to suggest some new strategies for treatment of coliform mastitis based on recent field research from the College of Veterinary Medicine at Colorado State University. The reason for using this classification system is that as the severity classification moves from mild to moderate to severe, the likelihood of finding coliform bacteria in the blood increases. Of the cows in their study, 32% had bacteria in their blood streams. Cows classified as severe were found to have bacteria in the blood 48% of the cases compared to 23% classified as moderate. When compared to non-coliform infected cows, all cows with signs of coliform mastitis were more likely to have bacteria in the blood. In most cases, the same coliform bacteria were found in the milk and blood of cows with suspected coliform mastitis. In addition, cows classified as severe were more likely to die from the mastitis infection. http://www.vetmed.ucdavis.edu/vetext/INF-DA/Strateg_Tr_Colifor_Mastitis.pdf September 2000 Coliform mastitis is one of the most common forms of environmental mastitis in dairy cows. The bacteria that can cause coliform mastitis - primarily Escherichia coli, but also various species of Klebsiella and Enterobacter - are common in dairy operations. This is because cows carry these bacteria in the intestinal tract and pass them in their manure, making it easy to contaminate the environment. http://www.dairybusiness.com/western/Sep00/colmast.htm April, 1998 Virginia For years, streptococci were the most prevalent bacteriological cause of mastitis. Prior to the widespread use of antibiotics, especially dry cow therapy, and dipping teats in sanitizing solution, Streptococcus agalactiae was the major cause of mastitis. This organism is contagious because it lives only in the udder and is transmitted directly from cow to cow, often through use of a common cloth or sponge for washing teats and udders. However, this organism has been eradicated from many dairy herds. Probably the most important change in mastitis epidemiology over the past decade has been the rise in importance of environmental pathogens, primarily coliforms and streptococci other than agalactiae. Today, many well-managed farms that have successfully controlled contagious mastitis, including Staphylococcus aureus, and consistently produce milk with somatic cell counts (SCC) below 300,000 have problems with increased clinical mastitis. To illustrate the magnitude of these infections, in 20,478 cows from 274 herds in the Netherlands with SCC below 400,000 (the regulatory limit in Europe), 28.5% of the cows had clinical mastitis during a year and a half period (41 cases per 100 cows per year). Of these, 42% were caused by environmental pathogens which include the "other" streptococci, and now are referred to as environmental streptococci (primarily Streptococcus uberis and Streptococcus dysgalactiae but also enterobacter) and coliforms (especially Escherichia coli and Klebsiella species) (Lam et al., 1997)1. In a subsequent study involving seven herds with bulk tank SCC below 150,000, 610 cows were cultured every 5-6 weeks, again at dry off and calving, and when clinical mastitis developed. Environmental pathogens comprised 46% of total infections and most of these showed clinical signs (94% of E. coli and 64% of environmental streptococci). Environmental pathogens are often responsible for most clinical cases of mastitis but only a few become chronic. Staphylococcus aureus was responsible for most of 290 recurrent cases. http://www.ext.vt.edu/pubs/dairy/404-234/404-234.html October 2000 Virginia The Incidence and Significance of New Coliform Mastitis Infections During the Dry Period" was recently published in the Journal of Dairy Science by scientists from the University of Bristol in England. Duplicate aseptic milk samples were collected at drying off, prior to and after calving from each quarter of 629 cows from 6 commercial dairy herds. All six herds had low bulk tank somatic cell counts with a 3-month geometric mean of 250,000. Although E. coli made up 80% of the infections (5.3% of quarters after calving), small numbers of Enterobacter (0.32), Klebsiella (0.28), Serratia (0.12), Proteus (0.52), Citrobacter (0.20), and Morganella (0.08) also were found. A rise in the incidence of mastitis infection occurred between drying off and calving, going from 2.7% of quarters to 7.8%. New E. coli infections were detected in 8.6% of quarters. Of the mastitis that developed during the first 100 days of lactation, most developed within 30 days in quarters that became infected during the dry period . All cows had been dry treated. More infections occurred during the summer months (1997 which was "comparatively wet"). "Significant numbers of intramammary enterobacterial infections are acquired during the dry period and quarters that acquire an infection are more likely to develop mastitis in the subsequent lactation." The authors also concluded that environmental management during the dry period may greatly impact the incidence of enterobacterial mastitis (again 80% was E. coli) in the subsequent lactation. Many herds have had problems with mastitis or high somatic cell counts this summer. These may have been caused by E. coli (a coliform). http://www.ext.vt.edu/news/periodicals/dairy/2000-10/ecoli.html July 1997 Utah Coliform mastitis is usually considered as an acute disease although some milder forms and even chronic cases do occur. It is caused by the bacterial organism Escherichia coli, hence the name, coliform. Other, related organisms, Enterobacter aerogenes and Klebsiella pneumoniae, are also often called “coliforms.” All of these are classed as “environmental” agents because they grow freely and commonly in the cows habitat and infect the udder as opportunists. Multiple factors are involved in allowing development of this disease; it is not simply a matter of “bacteria present equals disease.” The coliform organisms cannot be eradicated from the cow’s environment nor can all cases of coliform mastitis be prevented. But it can be controlled and the incidence reduced. http://extension.usu.edu/files/agpubs/dairy01.pdf 2006. England and Wales Dairy cattle with clinical mastitis caused by Escherichia coli exhibit a wide range of disease severity, from mild, with only local inflammatory changes of the mammary gland, to severe, with significant systemic derangement. The present study was designed to examine the relationship between serotype and virulence genes of E. coli mastitis isolates, different levels of systemic disease severity, and farm from which the E. coli strain was obtained. One hundred twenty-three E. coli milk isolates were obtained from cows with clinical mastitis of varying systemic disease severity from 6 different farms. No predominant serotype was identified by farm or by systemic disease severity; however, the most frequent serotype, O158:NM (n = 3), was isolated from cows in the moderate severity group. Virulence genes evaluated were identified infrequently and were not associated with systemic disease severity. Evaluation of genetic similarity showed no clustering assigned by farm or mastitis severity based on systemic disease signs. We concluded that a high degree of genotypic variability is characteristic of E. coli strains causing clinical mastitis within and between different farms and systemic severity groups, and that specific cow factors probably play a more important role in determining systemic disease severity. http://jds.fass.org/cgi/content/abstract/89/9/3408 31 March 2003 -- Denmark Coliform mastitis is an acute and potentially lethal type of mastitis in bovine practice. The therapeutical approach to acute coliform mastitis is frequently discussed. While is generally accepted that supportive therapy, such as fluid therapy, is necessary, the administration of antibiotics is questionned. This is due to mainly two reasons. Firstly, the clinical ill effects observed in coliform mastitis are often thought to be due to the effect of the accompanying endotoxicosis, which would not be influenced positively by the killing of the non-invasive E. coli. Secondly, antibiotics effective against E. coli, are potent, broadspectered antibiotics, with heavy impact on the micro-ecology. The unnecessary use of such antibiotics would subsequently contribute to the development of antibiotic resistance. http://www.actavetscand.com/content/44/S1/P8 |