CLASSIFICATION OF THE CLINICAL TYPES OF UDDER DISEASE AFFECTING NURSING EWES

An epidemiological study was carried out from September 1992 to Septem ber 1993 on 78 nursing ewe flocks in the south of France. From the dat a base consisting of 476 cases of clinical udder disease, a typology w as realised, based on Multiple Correspondence Analysis and Hierarchica l Ascending Clustering. The main characteristics of the 5 types of dis ease that have been found are the following: Type 1 (n=140): transitor y increase of the size of the whole udder, bilateral persistent agalac tia. Type 2 (n=50): decreased size of the affected half-udder, unilate ral persistent agalactia. Type 3 (n=75): unilateral and transitory aga lactia only. Type 4 (n=80): unilateral and transitory increase of the size of a half-udder. Type 5 (n=131): unilateral and persistent affect ion, the half udder being hot or cold, red or purplish with increased size, modified milk and behaviour of the ewe affected. The use of the clustering method and the interpretation of the 5 types are discussed. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.