Stimulering av kons immunförsvar med ginseng för att förebygga och behandla mastit

Summary

Mastitis is the most common and costly disease among dairy cows. Many cases are elicited by S. aureus infections that can cause both subclinical and clinical mastitis. The udder defence against infections is important but is often not sufficient to cope with the infection. Treatment with antibiotics is often not efficient. Thus, chronic subclinical S. aureus mastitis is rather common. Ginseng has been shown to stimulate the activity of blood and milk cells in dairy cows in vitro. Recent results indicate that subcutaneous injection with ginseng in vivo can improve the defence mechanisms and help to clear infections. Moreover, ginseng has been reported to be an efficient adjuvans in connection with immunization in guinea-pigs and pigs. The objectives with the project is to evaluate if ginseng can function as an adjuvans in connection with immunization. To evaluate if ginseng or vaccination against S. aureus can improve the results due to treatment of subclinical S. aureus mastitis with antibiotics. This project is a, from SLF, newly funded part of a PhD programme for Songhua Hu. The first part of the study, evaluating suitable dose of ginseng to use as an adjuvans at immunization with ovalbumin in dairy cows, is performed at present by Songhua Hu in China. Further studies are planned both in USA and Sweden during 2001 and 2002. The possibility to find ways to stimulate the cow’s defence against udder infections and to make mastitis treatments more efficient will be of great benefit to the dairy industry by reducing the incidence and costs for mastitis.
References
Concha, C, S. Hu & O. Holmberg (1996) The proliferative responses of cow stripping milk and blood lymphocytes to pokeweed mitogen and ginseng in vitro. Vet. Res. 27: 107-115.
Hu, S., C. Concha, R. Cooray & O. Holmberg (1995) Ginseng-enhanced oxidative and phagocytic activities of polymorphonuclear leukocytes from bovine peripheral blood and stripping milk. Vet. Res. 26: 155-161.
Hu, S., C. Concha, A. Johannisson, G. Meglia & K. Persson Waller (2001) Effect of subcutaneous injection of ginseng on cows with subclinical Staphylococcus aureus mastitis. Submitted for publication.