Mastitis
Milk quality has been a hot topic lately. There are 5 main points of mastitis control:
1. Infection Pressure
If there are a lot of mastitis pathogens cows are exposed to there is a higher chance they may become infected. These may come from the environment (manure, soil and bedding) or there can be cow to cow transmission. Equipment (eg. Teat dip cups), people or other animals (eg. Flies) can transmit pathogens from cow to cow.
2. Resistance
If the cow’s immune system is weakened for any reason she may be more likely to get a mastitis infection. Any diseases a cow has will weaken her immune system (including lameness). Nutrition also plays a large role in building up a good immune system and feed changes may be a stressor for a cow. Comfort issues such as heat stress or competition will also stress the cow and make her more susceptible to infection.
Ensuring appropriate BCS, and dry matter intake, ketone status and manure consistency will help the cow’s natural resistance to getting mastitis.
3. Milking
A good milking routine will ensure cows are milked out properly and also that mastitis bugs are not being transmitted from cow to cow via milkers.
Milking equipment is a key component to healthy udders, old liners can harbour bacteria or influence the vacuum at the teat end. Occasionally overtime the vacuum pump may not be sufficient when the system is under stress. If there are questions regarding milking equipment it is always best to test the equipment when the system is on and when cows are being milked. Your milk equipment dealer may be able to do this but we also have external sources that work with your milk equipment dealer to assess milking equipment if needed. Teat end scoring is something your veterinarian can do at herd health to assess if there may be overmilking or vacuum issues.
Milking routine: Please wear gloves! I know they can be a pain and in the summer they fill up with sweat but there is 75% fewer bacteria on gloved hands vs bare hands and wearing gloves can reduce the spread of all bacteria by 50%. Adequate prep time and disinfection pre milking will reduce the bugs at the teat end and improve milk let down which allows cows to be milked out better.
Cows with chronic high SCC or known contagious pathogens should be milked last or milkers can be disinfected with 1% iodine 20 ppm hydrogen peroxide or chlorine dioxide.
4. Treatment
The best chance of curing infections is in young animals, new infections and in the dry period. Reminder the treatments on label are only 2 tubes per case. There are times where extended therapy may be indicated but should not be used in all cases.
Identifying the organism before treatment will help guide treatment and management decisions. We can find most in clinic and some other pathogens such as Prototheca can be found at the Guelph lab. Organisms such as Prototheca will not be cured so best not to treat.
5. Monitoring
Having good data will allow your vet and team to better identify and solve problems. Recording cases of mastitis (even if they are not treated is essential).