Contribution to the study of mastitis in camels in southeastern Algeria

Mastitis is an important disease on camel farms in Algeria, affecting camels at different stages of lactation. This study includes several camel farms in the wilaya of Oued Souf and Ouergla in southeastern Algeria, where the consumption of raw camel milk is important, but it can expose consumers to the risk of zoonotic agents, which are currently underestimated. The objective of the study is to estimate the prevalence of the disease and detect the bacteria involved. The number of animals in the herds surveyed was 56 dromedaries.The CMT test revealed that mastitis had a prevalence of 26%; it was most prevalent in females aged between 14 and 35 years (57%), and the majority of cases occurred in summer with a prevalence of 38% compared with 19% in spring. Bacteriological analysis showed that staphylococcus aureus was the main cause of subclinical mastitis (79%), followed by Escherichia coli (21%). However, in the clinical form we found that E.coli is the most involved, with a prevalence of 75%, followed by staphylococcus aureus in 25% of cases. The bacterial strains isolated were resistant to certain antibiotics such as streptomycin and ofloxacin, but were also sensitive to amoxicillin and sulphamethoprim.