Bovine Mastitis: Examining Factors Contributing to Treatment Failure and Prospects of Nano-enabled Antibacterial Combination Therapy

Bovine mastitis, primarily caused by microbial infections of cow mammary glands leading to inflammation, is the costliest disease in the dairy industry. The severity and the responsiveness of mastitis to treatment depend on the dynamic interplay between the host, pathogen, and environmental factors. Evidently, the prospects of managing mastitis with conventional antibiotic treatment and disease management strategies are grim with the emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and the prevalence of virulence characteristics such as biofilm formation and intracellular survival among the persistent pathogens. Thus, there is a need for safe and economically viable alternate therapies capable of targeting broad-spectrum pathogens displaying AMR and virulence characteristics. Recent progress in the application of nanotechnology in drug delivery and infection control provides unprecedented opportunities for resolving recalcitrant infections. While the advantages of nanotechnology have been exploited for therapeutic delivery in humans, the potential of nanotechnology is yet to be realized in animal agriculture, especially for treating bovine mastitis. This review provides an overview of risk factors and pathogenesis associated with bovine mastitis that challenge the success of current treatment strategies and highlights how those unique challenges could be exploited for designing effective nano-enabled antibacterial combination therapy for bovine mastitis treatment.