Mastitis is an important disease of ewes occurring in all countries of the world where sheep are kept. This inflammation of the mammary gland is known to be a complex and costly disease [1]. The disease is associated with a decrease in milk production, an increase of veterinary services, treatment, labour costs and culling [2, 3]. In the work was studied the prevalence and etiology of mastitis in two dairy sheep herds with different milking technology at the start of milking season. The herds A (350 sheep), with milking machine technology is directed on breeding breeds Improved Valaska and Slovak dairy sheep. Breeding B, with manual milking method in fixation box - strung is directed on breeding breeds Improved Valaska and Tsigaj with 270 sheep. During the milking season was a breeding complex examination (clinical examination, California mastitis test and laboratory diagnostics milk samples) at the beginning (April) of milking season. In herd A was the prevalence of mastitis 14.9% and 27.8% in herd B with an increased incidence of subclinical forms. The most frequently isolated bacterial pathogens mastitis in both herds were coagulase negative staphylococci (CNS), S. aureus and S. uberis. Very important is early diagnosis of mastitis in ewes at the beginning of milking season because the treatment of subclinical forms can significantly eliminate clinical stage of acute forms of mastitis.
This work was supported by grant VEGA No. 1/0510/16.