Bovine Mastitis and Biofilms

Abstract

Biofilms play an increasing role within the medical and veterinary community. Due to the increased resistance of a biofilm, they can have direct and indirect effects upon a range of infections and diseases including chronic non- healing wounds, implant/prosthesis infection and mastitis. These problems can have significant effects on other industries, for example mastitis can have a detri- mental effect on milk yield in the dairy industry. The degree of severity biofilms can cause increases the pressure on the veterinary industry to diagnose and treat infections and diseases quicker and with more effective results. With maturity, biofilms may become more resistant to the effects of antimicrobials which make the infection harder to treat. As elaborated on in previous chapters, many antibio- therapy treatments currently used to treat bacterial infections are aimed at plank- tonic bacterial cells as opposed to cells encased in a biofilm; this makes their treatment increasingly problematic. Without adequate diagnostic and treatment protocols to treat veterinary biofilms, their impact will remain a significant challenge.