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Mastitis Control |
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Mastits Control
Besides the general hygiene conditions, which reflect the amount of germs in the milk,
the udder health status of the herd is a key factor for profitable milk production.
Only healthy cows can give the full amount of high quality milk which in turn, will keep consumers healthy.
Mastitis, the well know disease that causes inflammation and swelling of the udders, is still the No. 1
disease on dairy farms and cost dairy farmers billons of Euros a year in treatment and lost production.
Mastitis can appear as a clinical or sub-clinical disease. A sub-clinical mastitis cannot be recognized
easily, because the cow appears healthy. But both forms of mastitis can be triggered by insufficient
hygiene conditions and will lead to:
- decrease of milk yield
- risk of infection within the herd (cross contamination)
- risk of losing the udder quarter or cow
- higher veterinary costs
Reasons for udder diseases are manifold and usually can be linked to:
- Management
- Milking technology
- Feeding / metabolism
- Disturbances of the immune system
- Deficiencies in housing hygiene
- Deficiencies in udder hygiene
The occurrence of mastitis cases in a herd usually signify for the dairy farmer:
- Losses of milk money
- Bad individual cow performance
- Elevated veterinary costs
- Exposure of the healthy cows
- Higher costs due to culling and replacement of animals
The prevention of sub-clinical and clinical mastitis can be achieved by applying the following measures:
- Animal housing and parlor hygiene
- Milking hygiene
- Correct Pre-Milking/Cleaning routine
- Using effective post milking Teat Dips
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