Something CAN be done about

CORYNEBACTERIAAlice Gay Hall, San Bernardino, California

With special thanks to Dr. Robert A.Jackson, San Bernardino County Public HealthVeterinarian, for assistance with recent re-search, and to him and Dr. Jose Tacal for check-ing the manuscript.

Who is not tired of the Corynebacteria-caused boils that invade dairy goats conti-nually? Something can be done aboutthem. Three Michigan herds, under thecare of Dr. Clifford Beck, were clearedof abscesses, Caseous Lymphadenitis, byfollowing a rigid three-step control pro-gram.

Good nutrition, perhaps including someaureomycin or terramycin additives in thefeed, is a must. Caution must be usedwhen adding antibiotics to the feed ofruminants, however.

Sanitation is most important. Thisincludes culling animals that do not re-spond to treatment, separating kids fromtheir dams immediately so the infectionis not spread from mother to kid in thecleaning process, raising kids in clean sur-roundings, and cleaning barns and barn-yards with lye, Creosylic Acid or a similarproduct.

Vaccination can be effective againstboils IF the vaccination program is tailor-made to fit the needs of the herd. Auto-genous bacterins, those made from organ-isms found in the herd, used annually,are best.

Further recent research in Michiganshows that free-choice feeding of twoparts loose salt with one part organiciodine helps prevent boils.

Abscesses, for the most part, seem tobe caused by Corynebacterium pseudo-tuberculosis (ovis), and they are readilycleared by lancing and rinsing with iodine.

Re-infection is common becauseCorynebacteria are often harbored inthe lungs of even healthy animals andare passed via the breath to other animals,which harbor them in their lungs.

Unfortunately, the external abscessproblem is not the only one caused byCorynebacteria. In fact, it may be the

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least serious problem caused by thistroublesome organism.

Internal abscesses are more of a threat.Take the case of Beauty, a well-bred,glossy black Nubian with an excellentshow record. Her death seemed suddento her inexperienced owners, and theyhad her posted at the State VeterinaryLaboratory. Every organ in her bodywas infested with boils. She containedabscesses in all stages of development,and the infection from broken boils waswide-spread enough to cause death.

Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosisis not the only organism in the FamilyCorynebacteriaceae, Genus Corynebacte-rium that humanity has to contend with.

Horse breeders keep fighting C. renale,which causes a serious urinary tract infec-tion, also found in cattle, sheep and dogs.This organism has also been isolated fromtestes and seminal vesicles in sterile maleanimals.

Implicated in foal abortions is C. equi,which also causes purulent pneumoniain foals, and even seals have a bout tofight with C. phocae, which causes erysi-pelas-like lesions.

Man is not free of Corynebacteriaeither. He fought long and hard to winover diphtheria, caused by Corynebacteri-um diphtheriae, and many other speciesof Coryne have been isolated from healthyhumans.

Apparently, until further research un-covers something new, most livestock ishardest hit by Corynebacterium pyogenes.This organism is found in conjunctionwith Pasturella, Escherichia, Micrococcus,Streptococcus, Pseudomonas, Salmonella,and others in causing pneumonia. Somegood does were lost to a Corynebacteria-Pasturella combination in one Westernstate. In another state, many more werelost to a Corynebacteria-Pseudomonascombination. This organism also pairsup with Staphylococcus aureus, Strepto-coccus agalactiae, mycoplasma, or Clos-tridium perfringens to cause mastitis.

Countryside & Small Stock Journal

Donna, after winning her fifth reserve championship. Gail, before treatment, showing swollen knees.

Most of you met Shelly in the Hall-cienda Herald. Shelly, a lovely show doeand excellent producer, developed swol-len knees before she freshened. Afterfreshening came the mastitis, which,upon clearing, did not affect either showor production. Then came joint involve-ment throughout the body, and thecharacteristic "hopping" gait, as thearthritis worsened. Weight loss accom-panied other symptoms. Shelly wastreated with Penicillin-Streptomycin,Erythromycin, and Tylan. Her conditioncontinually degenerated. The possibilityis, of course, that re-infection occurred,since there were a couple of negativeblood cultures made in the course of thedisease.

How do we know what to blame forShelly's condition? Blood samples weretaken from the jugular vein into ThiolGlycbllate liquid media. The culturemay be transferred to blood agar or beefheart infusion media, both which alsogive good results growing Corynebacteria.

Very often, as in the case of Shelly,one of the first symptoms of Coryne-bacteria is swollen knees. Sometimesthis is accompanied by a generally un-thrifty appearance, perhaps a rough coatand thinness.

Two does with swollen knees, Sarahand Gail, revealed Coryne in blood cul-tures. Both, being good show does, weretreated for ten days with Penn-Strep.Both responded beautifully. The swel-ling in the knees disappeared, the lame-ness and soreness were gone, and thedoes showed even better than before.In many cases, if the infection is com-batted early enough, the disease may beinhibited.

Two other does. Liberty and Gretchen,showed similar symptoms, with unthrifti-ness and swollen knees. Both had nega-tive blood cultures, showing no bacteriain the blood. In cases like these, culturesor biopsies may have to be taken directly

September, 1972

from the most affected area, in these casesthe knees, to discover what the damagingorganisms are.

Another interesting symptom of Coryne,as in the cases of Rani and Ruby, are swol-len hocks that erupt and ooze blood andpus. Very often these sores will heal withtopical antibiotic treatment, but this doesnot reach the source of the infection, andinjections are indicated.

This is Donna. Donna never had anabscess. Donna has never been sick, andher knees are not swollen. Her barn re-cords showed over 2000 pounds of milkgiven in ten months as a five-year-old.And Donna has five reserve champion-ships in California shows. Her only hang-up is her kidding record. First fresheningbrought healthy twins. The next yearyielded an early abortion. Third yearbrought a large, healthy doe kid. Thefourth year, Donna would not breed afterrepeated attempts until quite late in theseason, and she finally delivered healthytwins. The fifth year resulted in beautifultriplet does, and the last attempt ended inlate abortion of two deformed kids.Donna's blood culture was loaded withCoryne. Chronic, systemic Coryne infec-tion is often thought to be fatal. Donnashows that it is not necessarily. Sometimesit is hardly even evident.

Some other things seem to be apparentto those of us who are learning to recog-nize Coryne. For one thing, those doesthat produce external abscesses until theowner could lose his mind with lancingand cleaning, very seldom show any ofthe more serious symptoms like arthritis,mastitis, wasting or abortion.

Secondly, it seems that reactions toCoryne may be heritable. There does notseem to be much chance of finding a goattoday that has not been exposed to Coryne.How the animal handles the exposure issomething else, and some reactions mustbe culled. Many animals never react toCoryne invasion. The abscess reaction,seldom being deadly, is one we can live

Shelly, showing first symptom, swollen knees.

Shelly, after fighting Coryne for two years.

with. Coryne reactions causing wastingor arthritis often cull themselves, as thoseanimals and their offspring do not survivelong.

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A healthy, high-producing Tammy at the endof lactation.

Tammy (left) and her mastitic trio.

A healthy, high-producing April, at the endof lactation.

April, after a month of fighting Coryne andmycoplasma.

Low production in apparently healthyanimals may be caused by Coryne. If itis, most of us would cull these does onthe basis of production. However, thismay be an answer to why excellent pro-duction sometimes skips a generation.The worst it does is break up a line ofinherited production stars. For example,Cleopatra, a 5*M, produced Terry, whonever gave more than four pounds ofmilk a day. Terry, on the other hand,produced Peggy, who gives over tenpounds a day at her peak, and Peggy'ssister produced Tammy, who became aone-day star milker as a yearling.

Mastitis is another condition manycull from their herds, and it is aggra-vating. Tammy, mentioned above, pro-duced over 1800 pounds her first lacta-tion. Second lactation lasted only fivemonths and yielded less than 600 pounds.Third lactation, only half her udder isfunctional, and that makes productionrecords look unconvincing, hi the caseof mastitis, a culture made from milksample is more useful than one madefrom blood. The same media may beused, and laboratory tests to indicateantibiotic sensitivity may be run, as withblood samples. The best way to treatCoryne mastitis is, usually, to use acombination of udder infusion and in-jections. Use of two different, butcompatible, antibiotics helps to reducethe incidence of bacterial immunityto them. Mastitis condition is probablynot caused by Coryne alone. Coryneopens the door for other invaders, andthey must be fought too.

Probably the most depressing organismto team up with Coryne is mycoplasma(PPLO). This is what happened to April.April's barn records showed over 2400pounds of milk in ten months as a three-year-old, and she was enthusiasticallyentered on DHI production testing. Herfirst official test was 10.8 pounds ofmilk at 4% butterfat. One week beforeher second official test, a small abscesslocated on the front of her udder justabove her left teat broke internally, re-leasing Coryne and causing mastitis.April's second official test was 0.1pounds of milk at 9.9% butterfat. A fattest that high usually indicates fever.Surprisingly, April's milk sample cultureshowed mycoplasma, not Coryne. April'sprognosis is not good. It would be betterif Coryne were the problem.

To summarize, let us say that Coryne-bacterium, a bacillus, is contracted throughskin injury, contact with pus from an openabcess, contact of kid's mouth or navelwith dam's mouth, contact of new navelwith infected ground, inhaling breathfrom animals harboring Coryne, or contactof teat orifice with infected ground.

Coryne is seldom found alone. It hasbeen found working with many differentkinds of bacteria. It has been found with

mycoplasma, and 9ne herd reports it work-ing with a metabolic-enzyme-inhibitingvirus that produces rapid wasting.

Coryne may cause abscesses, swollenknees, stiff knees, swollen, oozing hocks,arthritis, wasting, pneumonia, mastitis,and possibly abortion. Corynebacteria,in the laboratory, are easily controlledby many antibiotics. Experience showsthat these same antibiotics do not alwayshave similar effect in the living animal.Perhaps Coryne becomes encapsulatedin living animals and resists treatment.However, sometimes treatment is ef-fective.

Antibiotics used successfully in treat-ing Coryne include Penn-Strep, Erythro-mycin, Tylan and Liquimycin. Con-flicting reports exist on the effectivenessof vaccines. Autogenous bacterins, in theMichigan herds, were reported to be 85%effective. In Oregon, autogenous bacte-rins were not found to be effective enoughto warrant their use. Commercial bovineCorynebacteria-Pasturella bacterins arebeing used on the West Coast now withinconclusive results.

Diagnosis of the genus and species ofbacteria affecting an animal is best madeby growing a culture taken from bloodsample, milk sample or pus from an ab-scess. These cultures may also be usedin running sensitivity tests and in makingan autogenous bacteria.

Prevention is not out of the questionif contact with other animals and otherherds is eliminated. Sanitation, nutri-tion and vaccination are the keys.

Until more positive results come fromresearch still being done, capriculturalistswill have to try to live with Coryne as com-fortably as possible. Money and talentedpersonnel are needed for research. Andhope must be kept alive, perhaps with thethought that Corynebacterium diphtheriaeis no longer the threat it once was.

Bibliography and Acknowledgements

"Lymph Gland Abscessesin Goats", April 1956,Dairy Goat Journal

Freeman, Dr. E. N.

Hall, A. G.(with guidance from Dr. Clifford Beck),"Abscesses", May-June1970 American GoatSociety Periodic Dispatch,November 1970 DairyGoat Journal

Jackson, Dr. Robert A.,for laboratory work andtreatment in SouthernCalifornia herds over thelast two years.

Modern Veterinary Reference Series

Reynolds, Dr. Ge. E. "Abscesses of DairyGoats", University Ex-tension, Oregon StateUniversity

Siegmund, O. H., editor, Merck VeterinaryManual, Merck & Co.,Rahway, N. J., 1967-1970

Zinsser, H., et. al., Microbiology,Meredith Publishing Co.,New York, NY, 1964

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