to Escherichia coli Intramammary Infection

Mastitis is one of themost prevalent diseases in cattle and remains among themost costly diseases to the dairy industry. Various surveys have indicated a greater prevalence of and risk for mastitis in Holstein cows than in Jersey cows. The innate immune system com-prises the immediate host defense mechanisms that respond to infection, and differences in the magnitude and rapidity of this response are known to influence susceptibility to and clearance of infectious pathogens. The reported differences in the prevalence of mastitis between Holstein and Jersey cows may suggest the oc-currence of breed-dependent differences in the innate immune response to intramammary infection. The ob-jective of the current study was to compare the acut