Bovine Mastitis: An Asian Perspective

Bovine mastitis is an inflammatory disease of cow and buffaloes mammary gland caused by various infectious or non-infectious etiological agents. Mastitis must have been one of the first observed disease of farm animals when cattle were domesticated over 5000 years ago. Since then it will have been an ever present problem for all those who kept and milked dairy cattle and buffaloes. The dairy industry in particular, plays a strong role for the livelihood of poor people because agriculture land is going to shrink as a results dependency of farmers is increasing towards dairy sector. The buffalo population in Asia has multiplied over the past half a century, by a factor of 2.5 rising by almost 2.2 billion in absolute numbers and at an average annual pace of over 1.8%. Over 3.9 billion, roughly 60% of the world population, reside in Asia. Bovine mastitis is one of the important production diseases of dairy animals which directly or indirectly affect the economy of the farmers and ultimately affect the economy of the country. However, mastitis is a global problem as it adversely affects animal health, quality of milk and economics of milk production and every country including developed ones suffer huge financial losses. In Asia, major mastitis causing organisms are Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococci, E col, Corynebacterium spp. and Klebsiella spp., recent reports indicating the changing trends from Staphylococcus aureus to Coagulase Negative Staphylococci (CNS) as major mastitis causing organism. The pattern of mastitis occurrence in Asia is also significantly increasing in both cattle and buffaloes which is a major challenge for policy makers, field veterinarians and researchers.