A small episode of single quarter coliform infections in lactating dairy cows kept at pasture

For a period of 150 days, an Escherichia coli infection in a single quarter of the udder of 13 cows occurred on average every 9 days, in a herd of 120 cows kept at pasture under temperate environmental conditions. Most cases were clinically mild, affecting cows in lactations 1 to 10 and at all stages of lactation; none were evident at calving. Samples of secretion from infected quarters sometimes had few demonstrable organisms. Eleven different serotypes in 8 (0) groups were recovered; one isolate was multiply resistant to antibiotics and one infection persisted for 120 days. A precise explanation for this episodic exacerbation of the new infection rate was not established, but probable contributing factors were recognised.