Jean Penaud, Cobiotex, France November 15, 2001
TRIAL PURPOSE
The purpose of this trial is to demonstrate the efficacy of COBIOTEX 210 in the treatment of bedding to reduce the risk of pathogenic bacteria getting established in the bedding ecosystem and the reduction of environmental mastitis in dairy cattle.
TRIAL SET-UP
The trial was run in France with 81 dairy cows of the French Normande breed.
| Control Group | 10 cows in 1st lactation 15 cows in 2nd lactation 5 cows in 3rd lactation 11 cows in 4th and 5th lactation Total………………. 41 cows |
Experimental Group | 11 cows in 1st lactation 14 cows in 2nd lactation 5 cows in 3rd lactation 10 cows in 4th and 5th lactation Total………………… 40 cows |
Type of Farming
The cows are in free stalling in a building with 600 m2 of straw bedded resting area and 220 m2 of slatted area in front of the feed troughs.
The building was devided in two equal parts, zone “A” (Control Group) and zone “B” (Experimental Group) of 300 m2 straw bedded area and 110 m2 of slatted area each.
Cows walk to the milking parlor and back through an alley walkway which is outside of the areas where the cows are confined.
Bedding Treatment
The stalling floor was thoroughly cleaned before the start of the trial
SETTING THE BEDDING Control Group- Lime spread on the floor- Straw placed at 10 kg/m2 Experimental Group- COBIOTEX 210 spread on the floor in the bedded area, at 50 gr/m2- Straw placed at 10 kg/m2- COBIOTEX 210, 50 gr/m2, spread on top of the straw.
MAINTENANCE OF BEDDING
Control Group- Straw added daily 1 kg/m2- A water absorbent spread on the bedding twice a week, at 1.2kg/m2- Mucking out every 8 weeks Experimental Group- Straw added daily: 1 kg/m2 (bedded area)- COBIOTEX 210 spread on bedding and alsoon slat surfaces, once a week at 20 gr/m2- Mucking out at the end of 15 weeks
RESULTS
Production
Average daily milk production per cow. See Table I
Somatic cell count: every 15 days see Table II
Mastitis
Recording of each case of environmental mastitis See Table II
Identification of bacterial agent. See Table II
Quality of Bedding
At mucking, collection of bedding samples for
- bacteriological analysis see Table III.
- chemical analysis see Table IV.
CONCLUSION
COBIOTEX 210 reduces the risk of pathogenic bacteria getting established in the bedding ecosystem of dairy cows resulting in an improvement of the somatic cell count in milk, the reduction of the incidence of environmental mastitis and improvement in bedding quality.
Average daily milk production (Kg) per cow over a period of 100 days
| Group | October Start-up | November | December | January 1st half | January 2nd half | February 1st half | February 2nd half |
| Control | 24.70 | 26.30 | 26.80 | 26.70 | 27.00 | 26.70 | 26.50 |
| Experimental | 25.06 | 26.80 | 26.90 | 27.20 | 27.20 | 27.00 | 26.80 |
Table II
Somatic Cell count and number of mastitis cases
| Group | October Start-up | November | December | January 1st half | January 2nd half | February 1st half | February 2nd half |
| Control SomaticCell count | 121 000 | 185 000 | 235 000 | 372 000 | 343 000 | 418 000 | 242 000 |
| Control Number of Mastitis cases | 0 | 3 | 4 | 7 | 2 | 2 | 0 |
| Experimental SomaticCell count | 121 000 | 163 000 | 240 000 | 252 000 | 127 000 | 277 000 | 115 000 |
| Experimental Number of Mastitis cases | 0 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 |
IDENTIFICATION OF BACTERIAL AGENTS IN MASTITIS CASES:
Experimental Group (total 5 mastitis cases)
2 cases: negative
3 cases: E coli (non hemolytic), for all three cases
Proteus in 1 cow
Bacillus (non pathogenic) in another cow, originating from bedding
Control Group (total 18 mastitis cases)
11 cases: negative
7 cases: Streptococcus uberis in 2 cases
Streptococcus fecalis in 3 cases
Pastorella multocida + micrococcus sp. in 1 case
E coli (non hemolytic) in 5 cows. 4 associated with streptococcus and 1
E coli alone.
Bacteriological Analysis of Beddings
4 samples of bedding from both Control Group (non-treated bedding) and the Experimental Group (Cobiotex 210 treated bedding) were taken at 4, 8 and 15 weeks and at the end of the trial Mucking out of bedding in the Control Group was done at the end of 8 weeks. Mucking out of bedding of the Experimental Group was done at the end of 15 weeks.
| Counting | Control GroupNon-treated bedding | Experimental Group Cobiotex 210 treatedbedding |
| pH | 7.10 | 7.13 |
| Total mesophile aerobic flora UFC/g | 9.80 10*8 | 2.40 10*8 |
| Sporulated aerobic flora (bacillus UFC/g | 1.0 10*6 Bacillus cereus (monomicrobien) | 1.80 10*6 Bacillus subtilis |
| Anaerobic sporulated flora UFC/g | 2.7 10*4 | 2.5 10*3 |
| Lactic Flora (Lactobacillus) UFC/g | 1.2 10*6 Lactobacillus plantarum 1 Lactobacillus brevis 3 Leuconostoc mesentéroïdes | 3.6 10*6 Pediococcus pentosaceus Lactobacillus paracasei 1 Lactobacillus plantarum 1 |
| Moulds UFC/g | 7.2 10*5 | 4.2 10*5 |
| Yeast UFC/g | < 500 | < 500 |
| Enterobacteria UFC/g | 2.0 10*7 Escherichia Coli Serratia marcescens Providencia rettgeri Klebsiella pneumoniae | 7.7 10*6 Escherichia Coli Serratia marcescens Klebsiella oxytoca |
| Total coliforms UFC/g | 1.7 10*7 | 1.2 10*7 |
| Fecal coliforms UFC/g | 1.8 10*7 (1) | 1.4 10*7 (1) |
| Other microorganisms tested for | ||
| Staphylococcus | Absence | Absence |
| Pseudomonas | Pseudomonas aeruginosa | Pseudomonas aeruginosa |
| Salmonella | Salmonella typhimurium | Absence |
2 samples of bedding from Control Group(non treated bedding) and the Experimental Group
(Cobiotex 210 treated bedding) were taken and analyzed
Samples of bedding from the Control Group were taken first before mucking out at 8 weeks and then 2
months after storage in open air.
Samples of bedding from the Experimental Group were taken first at 8 weeks of bedding use and then
2 months after storage in open air following mucking out at 15 weeks.
| Parameters | Control before mucking- out | Control after storage | Cobio #210Treated at 8 weeks | Cobio #210Treated after storage |
| pH | 8.11 | 8.15 | 8.15 | 8.50 |
| Dry matter g/100 g | 17.80 | 14.10 | 21.70 | 35.30 |
| Mineral matter g/100 g | 21.21 | 29.93 | 22.07 | 31.39 |
| Organic matter (Anne method) g/100 g | 78.79 | 70.07 | 77.93 | 68.61 |
| Total Nitrogen (kjeldhal) g/100 g | 2.66 | 2.34 | 3.13 | 3.23 |
| Soluble Nitrogen N g/100 g | 0.763 | 0.255 | 0.576 | 0.377 |
| Percentage of solubility | 28.70 | 10.91 | 18.38 | 11.67 |
| Ammonia N/100 g | 0.335 | 0.425 | 0.18 | 0.068 |
| Percentage ammonia / total nitrogen | 12.61 | 1.82 | 5.70 | 2.10 |
| Nitrates N mg/kg | < 1 | 48 | < 1 | 161 |
| Organic Carbon (Anne method) g/100 g | 45.70 | 40.64 | 45.20 | 39.80 |
| Carbon Nitrogen ratio | 17.18 | 17.37 | 14.44 | 12.32 |
| Silica g/100 g | 10.40 | 19.75 | 12.60 | 13.70 |
| Total phospherous P2O5 g/100 g | 1.33 | 0.64 | 2.03 | 2.21 |
| Total Potassium K2O g/100 g | 3.24 | 2.06 | 1.75 | 5.27 |
| Total Calcium CaO g/100 g | 1.86 | 3.40 | 2.44 | 2.95 |
All results are calculated as a ratio to dry matter.