*Bovine Mastitis: Part I DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.93483*

enter the food supply and cause foodborne diseases [109, 162], especially through the consumption of raw milk [29] and undercooked meat of culled dairy cows due to chronic mastitis that are usually sold to the slaughter (abattoir) for meat consumption. The Center for Disease Control (CDC) estimated that roughly 48 million people in the United States a year become sick from foodborne diseases [163]. Foodborne pathogens have been detected in bulk tank milk in multiple studies [164–167]. These authors found that the number of foodborne pathogens detected in bulk tank milk vary with location, management practices, hygiene, and number of animals on the farm [165]. Similarly, a study on bulk tank milk from east Tennessee and southwest Virginia by Rohrbach et al. [168] showed that 32.5% of the samples analyzed contained one or more foodborne pathogens. Even dairy producers who used proper hygienic milking practices, pre- and post-milking teat disinfectant and antibiotic dry cow therapy, had foodborne pathogens in their bulk tank milk [164]. The isolation of these foodborne pathogens from bulk tank milk samples across the United States demonstrate the threat that mastitis pathogens and zoonotic mastitis causing pathogens create on public health if raw milk is consumed or if these pathogens make it through processing.
