Investigation of the effectiveness of mastitis vaccines in dairy goats

The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of different bacterial vaccines in Saanen goats used to prevent mastitis. The material of this study consisted of 142 female Saanen goats, 1-2 years old, whose births were aggregated. In the selection of goats; care was taken to ensure that they had not given birth before and had not previously mammary infection for any reason. In mammary secretion without microorganism, 115 goats were divided into four groups randomly. While the three of these groups were determined as a vaccine group and the other one as a control group. Three different commercial vaccines, Startvac® (SV), Lysgin® (LYS) and Vimco® (VC) were used in vaccine groups. While the target species for Startvac® and Lysigin® vaccines are cows and heifers, the target species for Vimco® vaccine are sheep and goats. In all groups, mammary secretion samples were collected on average 10-30 days prior birth, and milk samples were collected at birth time and monthly for 5 month after births. While only bacteriological and mycological cultures were performed in the milk samples taken at birth, bacteriological and mycological cultures and also somatic cell count was performed in the other months. During the study period, the patient goats that had clinical mastitis were registered and treated; or were removed from the herd according to the patient's condition. The data obtained in accordance with months, microorganisms, and different mastitis parameters were analysed statistically. It has been determined that different mastitis vaccines application can reduce the subclinical and clinical mastitis incidence, the new infection rates, the chronic infection rates and the culling rates due to mastitis and decrease the infection severity and the somatic cell count, also increase the spontaneous treatment rates. During the study, while the CNS was detected at the highest rate in all groups, mastitis incidence and somatic cell counts decreased significantly in SV and VC group compared to the control group. The effects of vaccines on the incidence of the most isolated specific microorganisms such as CNS and S. aureus and spontaneous recovery rates were not found to be sufficient. As a result of this study, it has been shown that mastitis vaccines used to prevent mastitis in goats do not completely reduce infection rates, but vaccines that will be applied together with mastitis control programs may limit the mastitis rates and can effectively decrease the somatic cell count.