Australian dairy farmers lose more than $150 million every year due to poor udder health. And Mastitis is a big part of this loss.
The sooner you detect and identify mastitis, the sooner you can do something about it.
Hi, I’m Ollie from Pasture.io, and today we’re going to talk about how you can detect and identify mastitis early.
There are two types of mastitis:
Clinical mastitis. When a cow has a visibly abnormal quarter of milk.
And sub-clinical mastitis. When a cow may not have any visible signs, but will still have a high somatic cell count.
Did you know? Lameness is one of the first noticeable signs of mastitis.
If you think about it, it’s quite logical, because a swollen or painful udder makes a cow walk differently.
So, closely inspect the cows that indicate some lameness.
Next, let’s talk about using your milking procedures to detect mastitis.
Before milking, look at all quarters for signs of mastitis. Specifically, look for differences in size or colour between the quarters.
Sometimes, even when there are no visible colour or size differences, a cow’s reaction can be an early indicator. Especially, if she’s more sensitive or gets more agitated when you attempt to milk a particular quarter.
If this happens, take a closer look. Feel and examine that particular quarter for any hardness, swelling or lumps.
Even otherwise, if you see watery milk, clots, flakes or discolouration when you strip more than three squirts of milk onto a dark surface or RMT paddle the cow has clinical mastitis.
All cows with clinical mastitis should be marked recorded separated and treated following your farm’s protocols check out our how to treat mastitis video for tips on handling clinical cases.
Also, please ensure that you disinfect the gloves and equipment you use to test mastitis milk. Else, you risk infecting other healthy cows too.
In case you miss detecting mastitis before milking an infected cow, you may notice strings of debris hanging from the infected teat after the milking cups come off. This can also indicate mastitis.
Also, check the milk for any clots or flakes. Again, this can indicate mastitis.
More importantly, the probability for clinical mastitis is highest in the first month immediately after calving.
So, you might want to manually remove the first few millilitres of milk before each milking session.
If in doubt, you might want to find out the somatic cell count and follow it up with a rapid mastitis test.
Let’s cover both of these steps now.
You can either get a bulk somatic cell count for your entire herd, which is typically supplied by your milk processor or get each cow’s somatic cell count (SCC) individually. The higher the cell count, the more severe the infection.
Depending on your bulk milk somatic cell count the weather and the history of mastitis on your farm you may need to remove all the milk from your infected cows.
Remember. The earlier you detect mastitis, the better you can limit your losses.
Also, you may want to do a rapid mastitis test on suspect cows.
To perform a rapid mastitis test, otherwise known as an RMT, add a few millilitres of milk from each quarter and a few millilitres of RMT solution to the milk from each quarter separately. Then swirl the milk and RMT solution together.
If the mixture doesn't thicken the milk, then that quarter is normal.
If there’s a slight thickening, that indicates a higher-than-normal somatic cell count and attention is needed.
The thicker the mixture becomes, the higher the RMT score and the higher the somatic cell count will be for that quarter.
Once you detect mastitis, consult with your vet immediately on the next plan of action.
Because mastitis is a big problem for both you and your cows. So early mastitis detection can help you avoid significant economic losses.
That wraps up our discussion on how you can detect and identify mastitis early.
I hope you enjoyed this video. And if you did, don’t forget to hit that thumbs up and subscribe button and share it with your fellow farmers.
Until we meet again, Happy Farming!
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How to effectively control mastitis in your dairy cows on your dairy farm
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