fairfolio
Saved Projects

The Battle Continues

CSEF · 2017 Microbiology (Medical) (Junior Division Only) Second Award

Kylie M. Konyn · Saint Joseph Academy, San Marcos, San Diego County

Overview

Objectives/Goals Mastitis is the most common disease among dairy cattle, as well as being the most costly. The purpose of this project was to examine the cost and time effectiveness of treating gram negative Escherichia coliform (E. Coli) mastitis in the bovine species. Methods/Materials 90 lactating Holstein cows that tested positive for E. Coli mastitis using bovine blood agar culture plates were placed in two groups based upon whether their identification number was odd or even. Then, they were further categorized as having either grade one (fever or swelling of the mammary system) or grade two (fever and swelling of the mammary system) E. Coli mastitis. Cows with odd identification numbers received the antibiotic Spectramast LC, while those with even identification numbers received no antibiotics. The number of visits to the hospital parlor, cost of medication, and the amount of lost milk revenue was monitored and recorded. Results Grade one mastitis cows who received medication had had more visits (M=16.1) compared to grade one mastitis cows who received no medication (M=10.7). Grade two mastitis cows who received medication had more visits (M=16.9) to the hospital parlor compared to grade two mastitis cows who received no medication (M=15.7). The cost to treat grade one mastitis cows on medication was higher (M=$118.47) compared to grade one mastitis cows not on medication (M=67.92). The cost to treat grade two mastitis cows on medication was higher (M=$125.02) compared to grade two mastitis cows not on medication (M=$98.97). Conclusions/Discussion The use of antibiotics to treat cows infected with gram negative Escherichia coliform mastitis is more costly and time consuming, especially in those with grade one E. Coli mastitis, suggesting that it may be more economical to allow the infected cows to self cure on their own without the use of antibiotics.

Summary statement

In my project, I proved that it is neither cost nor time effective to treat gram negative E. Coliform mastitis with intramammary treatment.

Help received

My father and I were the only two people to give the antibiotics during the study. Cornell University and University of Wisconsin-Madison provided me with background research for my project. My mother helped me to fill out all the necessary forms and applications. My instructor helped me to submit my

Awards (1)

Competition history

  • CSEF 2017 Microbiology (Medical) (Junior Division Only) · Entry J1713

Resources

Related projects

Closest projects by meaning, across every fair and year in the corpus.

Browse more like this

Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

Save projects to your library

Sign in with Google to keep track of projects you find interesting, organized into folders. An account also raises your daily allowance for “Has this been done?”, and lets you create a key for the MCP server with a much higher limit than anonymous use. Browsing stays public.

Continue with Google