The aim of the study was to characterize the health status and occurrence of pathological changes in mammary glands as well as to isolate etiological agents of mastitis in different herds. A single clinical examination of the udders of 3673 cows and bacteriological examination of 13,778 aseptically collected quarter milk samples were performed in 32 farms. Clinical forms of mastitis were found in 1.9% to 6.5% of quarters. Subclinical forms of mastitis ranged from 27.7 to 43.4%. Different degrees of damage to the teat end and teat canal were observed in 1.2 to 4.4% of quarters examined. Staphylococcus aureus was isolated from milk in 13.0% of samples, coagulase-negative staphylococci in 18.9%, environmental streptococci in 3.2%, Str. agalactiae in 0.3% and Str. dysgalactiae in 0.5%. In conclusion it can be stated that clinical and subclinical forms of udder inflammations are still a serious problem in some farms in Poland. In bigger farms the most important problem are infections caused by Staphylococcus spp. Environmental streptococci (mostly Str. uberis) and CNS dominate in smaller farms. Interesting is the low percentage of Str.agalactiae regardless of the size of the farm.
The investigations were carried out on 35 dairy cows: 18 experimental cows receiving Inmodulen and 17 controls. Inmodulen, a bacterial immunostimulator was administered to experimental cows on the day of calving and on day 14 thereafter. The blood was sampled once a week during the first five weeks of lactation. The level of chemiluminescence (CL) was determined by a luminometer BioOrbit 1251. The phenotype of subpopulations of T lymphocytes (CD2, CD4, CD8) was also examined. The total antioxidative status (TAS) of plasma was determined as well as the activity of SOD, GPX and CAT. Inmodulen was given twice, and caused a significant increase in the percentage of lymphocyte CD4 subpopulation along with an increase in CL, which directly points to an increase in bactericidal activity of neutrophils. The activation of these cells did influence the pro/antioxidative equilibrium of plasma TAS and the activity of SOD and CAT; however, it caused the increase of GPX activity.