Ultrasonicated Enterococcus faecium SF68 enhances neutrophil free radical production and udder innate immunity of drying-off dairy cows

Proper dry cow management is critical not only for subsequent milk production and fertility but also for mastitis control. A phenomenon of immunosuppression was commonly observed in transition cows, an example being the high susceptibility of the mammary gland during early the dry period to new infectious agents. Polymorphonuclear neutrophils (PMN) play important defence roles in the mammary gland of newly dried cows. One of the bactericidal mechanisms of PMN is through producing reactive oxygen species (ROS), which can be efficiently quantified by chemiluminescence (CL) assay. In the current study, the potential of intramammary application of a commercial Enterococcus faecium SF68 (SF68) product to enhance the local innate immunity of newly dried mammary glands was evaluated based on the CL assay. The preliminary experiments in vitro indicated virtual dose-responsiveness of ROS generation from three different cell preparations, bovine blood PMN, bovine blood PMN pre-conditioned with cow milk, and the post-diapedesis model somatic cells from cow milk, on their exposure to phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA), viable SF68, and ultrasonicated SF68, but not dry-heated SF68. Because ultrasonication treatment was found to profoundly enhance the immunogenicity of SF68 in vitro, in the following animal trial, single infusion of either 5 or 10×107 original cfu of ultrasonicated SF68 was randomly applied to the front quarters and phosphate-bufferedsaline (PBS) applied to the rear quarters of each of the four experimental cows on the first day of milk stasis. The results showed that within the first post-infusion week, ultrasonicated SF68 induced a faster and greater (P