TY - JOUR T1 - Effects of Precalving Antibiotic Treatment on Mastitis and Individual Somatic Cell Count in Heifers AU - Bastan, Ayhan AU - Cengiz, Mehmet AU - Cengiz, Seyda AU - Polat, Bulent AU - Colak, Armagan AU - Akan, Mehmet AU - Darbaz, Isfendiyar AU - B. Acar, Duygu JO - Journal of Animal and Veterinary Advances VL - 9 IS - 8 SP - 1245 EP - 1249 PY - 2010 DA - 2001/08/19 SN - 1680-5593 DO - javaa.2010.1245.1249 UR - https://makhillpublications.co/view-article.php?doi=javaa.2010.1245.1249 KW - Mastitis KW -precalving intramammary antibiotic treatment KW -somatic cell count KW -lactation KW -heifer AB - In this experiment, effectiveness of antibiotic treatment was evaluated by bacteriology and Somatic Cell Count (SCC). Ninety-six heifers were divided randomly into two groups: either to be treated with antibiotics (200 mg cephalexin monohydrate and 250 mg neomycin) 45 days prior to expected calving date (Group 1, n = 41) or not treated (Group 2, n = 55). Bacteriologic tests were used for detection of infected quarters. Of the quarters, 58.3% had infection at least in one quarter before calving. Mastitis pathogens were isolated from 31% of the quarters. In the treatment group, 43 of 52 infected quarters (82.6%) were cured but new infections (n = 43) were detected in the beginning of the lactation. Spontaneous cure rate was 69.3% in the control group and new infection rate (24.2%) was lower than the treated group. The treatment was effective for reducing prepartum Intramammary Infections (IMI) and persistent IMI; it was however inadequate to protect the quarters from new IMI in the beginning of lactation (p>0.05). Precalving antibiotic treatment was however quite effective for reducing individual SCC. There were less quarters (n = 5) with high SCC (>400.000 cells mL-1) in the treated group than the control group. In conclusion, antibiotic treatment prepartum may be necessary to reduce incidence of mastitis and improve quality of milk. ER -