Mastitis Control Plan part 1: useful advice to prevent the disease
Mastitis is known as the most expensive dairy cattle disease, whose economic impact cannot be underestimated. In fact, this udder infection decreases milk production, while increasing treatment costs and labor. Consequently, farmers should be extremely careful in controlling and planning dairy operation, in order to minimize the impact of mastitis.
After providing an overview of the main cases, related factors and some possible practice to prevent mastitis, we will focus on the role liners play on determining or avoiding this disease, relying on the expertise of both Luiz Cutolo, our Commercial VP - Americas, and Ghislain Coppejans, our Territory Sales Manager.
Different pathogens, different mastitis
Some mastitis indicators are milk discoloration and a high presence of clots or white blood cells within it, as well as pathological changes in udder tissue, such as swollen teat and udders.
Knowing the source of the infection is imperative to decide the most suitable way to cure mastitis.
In fact, depending on the type of pathogens determining mastitis, this can be:
Contagious, whose pathogens live on teat skin or inside udders and spread from infected quarters to clean ones during milking, through milker’s contaminated hands, gloves or towels, and flies. This type of mastitis is more often sub-clinical, meaning that symptoms are often not clearly displayed by the animal, but indicated by a high Somatic Cell Count (SCC).
Environmental, whose bacteria attach to teat or udder and can enter the canal between or during milking, as the animal encounters a contaminated surface. In this case, mastitis is predominantly clinical, and its symptoms are highly visible on cows and their milk.
Fundamental principles of mastitis control
The main mastitis threats for animals reside in wrong milking procedures, environmental issues, or a poor immune system.
Therefore, when trying to counteract mastitis in dairy animals, it is crucial to remember that it can be controlled by either a decreased teat exposure to potential pathogens or an increased resistance to infection. How can these two goals be achieved?
Udder skin works as the first defense to bacteria attack, hence udder and teat integrity should be prioritized through granting sufficient hygiene during and after milking, a correct functioning and timing of the milking machine, avoiding over-milking, and monitoring udders through a teat end scoring.
Farmers should then rely on a Mastitis Control Plan, which can play an essential part in preventing udder infection outbreak and spread across the herd. In fact, both Luiz and Ghislain agreed on the fact that to obtain a fast and complete milking, avoiding the risk of damaging cows’ teats, it is necessary to pay attention to the milking routine, as well as ensure adequate milking system settings, vacuum levels and pulsation phases.
Since the actions to implement are aimed at ensuring three main objectives, a simple, clean and dry environment, a perfect milking routine, and optimal milking machine parameters, the plan can be considered the “Mastitis Triangle”.
Even though vaccinations are available methods to stimulate cows’ immune response against mastitis, their immune system is another defense to prioritize.
With this in mind, here are two main aspects to consider, and some related advice:
Providing animals with an adequate supply of vitamins and minerals, both useful for the proper function of the immune components, such as pathogen recognition and antibody response.
Essential vitamins for proper system functioning are A, D and E, whereas among minerals, Selenium is proven to highly benefit cows’ immune defense, as the higher the Se level, the lower the SCC (Figure 1).
Zinc is another element not to be underestimated, whose deficiency may cause teat skin cracking, compromising its resistance to bacteria. In addition, Zn level in blood dramatically decreases around calving, leaving the animal highly susceptible to infections.
Figure 1 - Relationship between herd plasma Selenium status and bulk tank SCC
Source: DairyGlobal - Tackling mastitis the right way
Ensuring cows as little stress as possible. More specifically, when uncomfortable or in pain, due to extreme heat or cold, a dirty environment, or an incorrect milking routine, cattle release both adrenaline and cortisol. These hormones suppress immunocompetent cells’ reaction to pathogens, delaying their arrival to the site of inflammation. Cows thus become more susceptible to infections, such as mastitis.
Since the dry period is a critical phase for cattle, in which they tend to be particularly prone to teat infection, implementing adequate dry cow management can be a wise choice. To understand if this is necessary, more and more farmers count on on-farm culturing, which allows producers to test milk samples directly on the farm, within 24 hours.
When combined with Veterinarians’ support, this allows farmers to make informed treatment decisions, while reducing unnecessary antibiotic use by up to 50%, as it is only used when likely to be effective (e.g., on Gram-positive infections).
Summarising these lines, we identified the best weapons to fight mastitis, along with reinforcing the importance of preserving udder health to prevent bacteria from entering the teat canal, either during milking or while encountering a contaminated environment.
In the next episode, we will particularly focus on the relationship between mastitis and liners, on which udder well-being highly depends. Don’t miss out!
milkrite | InterPuls thank Luiz Cutolo and Ghislain Coppejans for their precious support.
Sources:
Controle de mastite: Como as teteiras podem influenciar? Cutolo, 2021
Difese immunitarie della bovina – saperne di più 07/2011
Difese immunitarie della bovina – saperne di più (mastitalia.org)
Mastitis control in dairy production Sharif, Umert, Muhammad – Journal of Agriculture and Social Science, 2009
(PDF) Mastitis control in dairy production (researchgate.net)
On-Farm Culture: The Smart Approach to Clinical Mastitis Treatment Yutzy – PennState Extension, 01/2023
On-Farm Culture: The Smart Approach to Clinical Mastitis Treatment
Overview of the Cattle Immune System Cooke
Beef Cattle Library - Reinaldo Cooke IMMUNE SYSTEMx (oregonstate.edu)
Tackling mastitis the right way Warren – DairyGlobal, 06/2021
DairyGlobal - Tackling mastitis the right way
Using an On-Farm Culturing System to Identify Mastitis Causing Pathogens Sterrett, Bewley – University of Kentucky, Department of Animal & Food Sciences
Using an On-Farm Culturing System to Identify Mastitis Causing Pathogens