Immunity to experimental staphylococcal mastitis--comparison of live and killed vaccines

Eleven pregnant Merino ewes were immunised with either a killed Staphylococcus aureus cell-toxoid vaccine (intramuscularly) or a living culture of the same organism (subcutaneously). A further 3 animals were used as non-immunised controls. There were no significant differences between the vaccinated groups for agglutinating antibody to staphylococci or for anti-alpha-haemolysin in either serum or whey. Three weeks after lambing the ewes were challenged by intramammary infusion of virulent staphylococci. All animals developed an acute mastitis with significant decreases in milk yields being recorded 48 hours post-challenge. Seven days after challenge the mean milk production of ewes given the live vaccine had recovered to within 5% of the pre-challenge mean yield. However, milk productions of controls and ewes given the killed vaccine had further decreased and were significantly lower than for animals vaccinated with live staphylococci. There were no significant differences between the two vaccinated groups for numbers of bacteria or leucocytes in milk samples collected after challenge. The ewes were killed 7 days post-challenge and mammary tissues were examined for immunoglobulin-containing cells. Large numbers of IgA-containing cells, and few IgM-containing cells were found, but there were no significant differences between the treatment groups for these parameters.