Royal GD, 7400 AA Deventer, the Netherlands.
Royal GD, 7400 AA Deventer, the Netherlands.
J Dairy Sci. 2021 Jan;104(1):728-735. doi: 10.3168/jds.2020-18414. Epub 2020 Nov 12.
Udder cleft dermatitis (UCD) or udder sores is a skin lesion, characteristically located around the anterior junction between the udder and abdomen of dairy cows. It is a worldwide problem in dairy herds with a large effect on animal welfare. The etiology and possible infectious origins of UCD are largely unknown; however, specific bacterial or parasitic causes are suggested in the literature. Therefore the aim of this study was to investigate the possible bacteriological, mycological, or parasitic involvement in clinically scored UCD lesions. Bacteriological culture was performed on subcutaneous tissue samples taken postmortem at a depth of 5 to 10 mm of 87 mild or severe UCD lesions or from the same place in healthy cows. Fungal culture was performed on a subset of 22 subcutaneous tissue samples of severe UCD postmortem. To investigate the superficial flora, swabs were taken from normal skin or skin lesions of 15 live animals equally divided over 3 groups: healthy skin or mild and severe UCD lesions. Histopathology, to describe and classify the lesions and to assess the presence of mites, fungi, or bacteria, was performed on 128 tissue samples, taken separately. In severe UCD lesions, Trueperella pyogenes and Bacteroides pyogenes were more frequently present in deep tissue layers and in superficial layers, compared with the same layers in mild UCD lesions or healthy skin. Culturing and histopathology indicated no sign of involvement of treponemes, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, fungi, or mites in the UCD lesions. Histopathological examination showed that the majority of the lesions were characterized by chronic aspecific inflammation. Severe UCD lesions more frequently showed chronic active inflammation on histopathology, compared with mild UCD lesions. Due to the cross-sectional character of this study, it is difficult to differentiate cause and effect; however, future preventive and curative measures against UCD should take into account the chronic and anaerobic nature of this illness.
奶牛乳头裂皮炎（udder cleft dermatitis，UCD）或乳头溃疡是一种皮肤病变，特征性地位于奶牛乳房和腹部的前交界处周围。这是一个全球性的奶牛场问题，对动物福利有很大影响。UCD 的病因和可能的感染源在很大程度上尚不清楚；然而，文献中提示了特定的细菌或寄生虫原因。因此，本研究旨在调查临床上评分的 UCD 病变中可能存在的细菌、真菌或寄生虫参与情况。对 87 例轻度或重度 UCD 病变或来自健康奶牛同一部位的死后 5 至 10 毫米的皮下组织样本进行细菌培养。对 22 例严重 UCD 的死后皮下组织样本进行真菌培养。为了研究浅表菌群，从 15 只活动物的正常皮肤或皮肤病变处采集拭子，这些动物平均分为 3 组：健康皮肤或轻度和重度 UCD 病变。对 128 个组织样本进行组织病理学检查，以描述和分类病变，并评估螨虫、真菌或细菌的存在，这些样本是分别采集的。与轻度 UCD 病变或健康皮肤的相同组织层相比，严重 UCD 病变中，真杆菌属和拟杆菌属在深层和浅层组织中更为常见。培养和组织病理学检查表明 UCD 病变中没有梅毒螺旋体、金黄色葡萄球菌、大肠杆菌、真菌或螨虫的感染迹象。组织病理学检查显示，大多数病变的特征是慢性非特异性炎症。与轻度 UCD 病变相比，严重 UCD 病变的组织病理学检查显示慢性活动性炎症更为常见。由于本研究的横断面性质，很难区分因果关系；然而，未来针对 UCD 的预防和治疗措施应考虑到这种疾病的慢性和厌氧性质。
