 “Cow
Parking” or cow purchase – keeping a low cell count when the cows come home
If you have culled a lot of high
cell count cows, this is a great opportunity to keep a low cell count herd for
good. Don’t forfeit the chance by bringing mastitis back in and allowing it to
spread.
When cows are milked in other
herds, they will be exposed to different mastitis bacteria. When they come home
they will bring a new profile of mastitis into the herd. This will also occur if
you purchase new cows to build herd numbers again.
Concentrate on mastitis control
activities that prevent spread in your herd (such as teat disinfection and
maintenance of machines and rubberware), and use a recommended Dry Cow Treatment
program to eliminate as many infections as possible.
Herd Testing will be important to
allow you to track mastitis spread and find newly infected cows quickly. If you
have given up Herd Testing this year, still keep recording the information. It
is much easier to start again if you have continued to record details in your
usual way.
Here are some tips about how to
find a problem quickly if it does occur.
- Ensure that every clinical
case is recorded and that you check the number of cases in the herd monthly.
If you have more than two cases per 100 cows in a month, investigate.
- Check treatment response
rates. If new bacteria enter your herd, they may be less responsive to your
normal treatment protocol. Set a clear method of recording whether cows go
back in the vat after a full course of treatment. Expect a success rate of
70% or more. If it is less than that, investigate.
- Collect milk samples from
every mastitis case before you treat it. These samples can be frozen and
submitted for culture in a batch. If the type of bacteria in your herd has
changed, you may need to change some mastitis strategies. Any culture of Strep
agalactiae is important. This is a very contagious bug. Even one
positive result in a previously negative herd requires prompt action.
Image: monitor_cases.jpg
Caption:
Carefully monitor mastitis cases when your cows come home.
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