Prevalence, Seasonal Prevalence and Etiology of Clinical and Subclinical Camel Mastitis in Saudi Arabia

A cross-sectional study to investigate prevalence, seasonal prevalence and causative agents of clinical and subclinical dromedary camel mastitis in Saudi Arabia (KSA) was conducted. The prevalence of acute mastitis was 3.6% and of chronic mastitis was 2.2%. Physical tests, California mastitis test (CMT) and somatic cell count (SCC), were done in normal and infected milk specimens to draw a borderline between clinical and subclinical mastitis; a good correlation was detected between them. The average SCC in normal camels was 478,153 cells/ml which corresponds to negative score in CMT. Based on physical tests, subclinical mastitis has a prevalence rate of 44.4%. Many bacterial and fungal species have been isolated from mastitic cases; for a portion of them this constitutes the first report from camel mastitis. From camels’ acute mastitis the most prevalent isolates were Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus agalactiae with fungi constituting 10.8% of all isolates. From chronic mastitis, highest rates were for Staph aureus, coagulase-negative Staphylococci and Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis; fungi at 20.1%. From subclinical mastitis, Staph aureus and coagulase-negative Staphylococci were most prevalent with fungi at 12.4%. Seasonal prevalence of mastitis pathogens showed that environmental pathogens prevailed in winter and contagious pathogens in summer. From the findings of the study, the importance of mycotic mastitis is stressed. Improvement of diagnostic techniques to facilitate treatment according to etiology was highlighted. Results were discussed and conclusions drawn to improve mastitis control.