{"id":5146,"date":"2021-06-29T08:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-29T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/genus-develop.go-vip.co\/promar-de\/?p=5146"},"modified":"2021-07-02T09:57:38","modified_gmt":"2021-07-02T09:57:38","slug":"why-mastitis-is-costing-you-more-than-you-think-and-what-you-can-do-about-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www-dev.promar-international.com\/de\/why-mastitis-is-costing-you-more-than-you-think-and-what-you-can-do-about-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Why mastitis is costing you more than you think and what you can do about it"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Victoria Craig-McFeely<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mastitis is by far the costliest disease facing the dairy industry and on the average 200-cow farm is estimated to cost around \u00a330,000 per year, or \u00a3150 per cow. For an 8,500-litre herd, that\u2019s the equivalent of 1.76ppl. It is also important to remember that clinical cases are only half the picture, sub-clinical cases can result in a huge amount of lost income and should be addressed as well.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do these costs come from?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not just the price of the antibiotic tubes and the discarded milk. It\u2019s the time taken to treat each individual animal when you could be doing something else, the penalties of a high bulk somatic cell count (SCC), lower lactation yields, poorer fertility, premature culling and deaths.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, aligned contracts often have stricter criteria for antibiotic usage and cell counts. In the future I envisage more emphasis will be placed on the percentage of the herd with individual SCCs under 200,000, thus milk recording will have an even more important role in avoiding penalties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How do you know which problem you have?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Mastitis can be broadly categorised into two types \u2013 contagious mastitis, which is most commonly spread in the parlour and environmental mastitis, which is influenced by housing conditions. Environmental mastitis can then be further split into problems in the milking cow shed and environmental problems in the dry cow housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conjunction with your vet or one of our Consultants, consider using the AHDB pattern analysis tool<\/a> to identify the predominant mastitis infection pattern on your farm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What can you do to help prevent mastitis?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Based on experience in the field, I have found that there are recurring problems that can be quickly targeted for easy gains in mastitis control. Some tips to avoid these pitfalls include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n