Guidelines
Farmers will benefit from given guidelines how to act when they spot mastitis. Here is a proposal for guidelines.
First measure: take a milk sample before treatment. Add 1-2 ml of glycerol, so that the sample can be stored frozen. A store of previous cases could prove invaluable should major problems arise. Farmers will need instructions how to avoid contamination when sampling, such as preparing the quarter beforehand: wash, disinfect with iodine, dry, and sterilize using surgical spirit.
In the next cases, samples should be tested:
- Test animals not responding to treatment and those chronically infected
- Test animals with persistently high somatic cell counts more than 250,000
- Test animals if bulk somatic cell count is approaching or more than 250,000
- Test animals if treating more than 30 cases in every hundred cows a year (remember two quarters equal two cases)
Costs
One case of mastitis on average is estimated to cost about £137.31, with severe or fatal cases inevitably costing more. Armed with these facts it's important when treating cases to use the correct products tailored to individual farms or this figure will rise even further.
Husbandry
Control measures must be implemented at all stages of management including the dry period. Current thinking suggests sub-clinical infections picked up in this period may result in an increase in clinical cases in the first part of the lactation. Consequently, if the majority of clinical cases occur within the first 30 days of lactation then the dry cow period should be looked at as a potential source of infection.
Dry cows and maiden heifers are often out of sight and out of mind until they approach calving. The management of these animals is pivotal in stemming the flow of new infection within the herd. Changes in management may include alternative housing, addressing mineral/nutritional deficiencies and the introduction of teat sealants to the drying off regime.
Tubing
The introduction of double tubing with dry cow therapy followed by an internal teat sealant has also been shown to have a beneficial effect on new infection rates.
Many tube manufacturers all claim to have the answer to mastitis problems, but the truth is therapy must be tailored to individual farms. And without sufficient testing money can be wasted on ineffective treatments.
.jpg)
