STUDY ON A NOVEL WAX-TEAT BOUGIE FOR TREA TMENT OF WOUNDS IN THE PAPILLARY LACTIFEROUS SINUS OF DIARY COWS UNDER SPECIAL REGARD TO ENDOSCOPICALLY DOCUMENTATION OF MUCOSA REACTIONS COMPARED TO CONVENTIONAL TEATBOUGIES AND A TEAT CANULA

The present study on a novel wax-teat bougie, developed by Dr. T. GEIS HAUSER for treatment of wounds in the papillary lactiferous sinus of d airy cows, has been performed in two phases of investigation. In a fir st step, fourteen healthy dairy cows (Deutsch Schwarzbunt) in state of early lactation were dried off temporarily for five days, after check ing milk samples of ail quarters for six following-on days on their ba cteriological status, number of somatic cells, conductivity and result s of the California-Mastitis-Test (CMT). The drying off was performed on two Quarters with similar cell-count in milk samples each. In one t eat of the selected pairs off udder quarters, the wax-bougie was appli cated (group I), the other corresponding udder quarters were used as a coni roll (group II). After five days of drying off, lactation was st arted again after removing the bougies in treated quarters. For anothe r five days milk samples out of the quarters in groups I and II were c hecked in the laboratory tests named above and mean values and increas e differences of results were compared. Comparison of increase differe nces with t-test showed no statistically significant difference betwee n drying off procedures with the wax-bougie and without any treatment in the parameters named above. Courses of counts of somatic cells, con ductivity and CMT showed no significant differences between drying off probands by using the novel wax-bougie and drying off without further treatment. In the second phase of the study, fifteen lactating, healt hy dairy cows as probands have been splitted in five groups. Three cow s (twelve udder quarters) were dried off for five days by using the no vel teat bougie (group D), in three groups (A,B,C) two different types of conventional teat bougies and one type of canula were used, and, a s a control three cows (group E) were dried off without any treatment. Before drying off the udder quarters and after stalling lactation aga in, the condition of the mucosa in the teat papillary lactiferous sinu s has been documented by means of endoscopy and the bacteriological st atus of milk samples has been determined. As a result all udder quarte rs dried off temporally showed endoscopically detectable inflammatory- proliferating reactions in the mucosa of the papillary lactiferous sin us, whereas in cows treated with the novel wax-bougie (group D), as we ll as in the cows of the control group (E), there were no inflammatory reactions detectable at all. These different reactions, basing on the Fisher-test, have to be considered statistically significant (p < 0,0 01).