Mycoplasma californicum mastitis in ewes as an experimental model for antibiotic treatment.

A strain of Mycoplasma californicum successfully infected an experimentally inoculated ovine mammary gland causing a severe mastitis. The condition lasted for about 25 days, and resulted in atrophy and loss of milk production in the gland. Four experimentally infected ewes, treated over a 3-day period with various regimes of the antibiotics oxytetracycline or tylosin during the acute stage of infection, successfully eliminated the infection. Two others similarly treated with combined intramammary and intramuscular tiamulin or with intramammary Bay Vp2674, did not eliminate the infection; but another ewe treated with intramuscular as well as intramammary Bay Vp2674, did resolve the infection. The two ewes that were unsuccessfully treated with antibiotics at the acute stage did respond to tylosin or oxytetracycline at a later stage of infection. Measurement of antibiotic concentrations demonstrated that the persistence of inhibitory levels in the milk varied between the antibiotics and were influenced by the extent of parenteral treatment.