At every Countdown Downunder short course this year farmers have asked, “What is the best antibiotic to use to treat clinical mastitis cases?”

The treatment of choice relies on having a detailed knowledge of the herd – and largely depends on the quality of information that the farm ‘team’ can give their vet.

“The teat end must be disinfected properly to avoid introducing bacteria into the teat during treatment.”

The vet needs to know which mastitis bacteria are causing the problem in the herd (this is established from milk samples sent to a laboratory for culture), and needs to be able to assess whether or not the treatments used are curing the infections.

A simple measure of whether antibiotics are successfully curing clinical mastitis in the herd is the number of cows that, after being given a full course of treatment, require a second course of treatment. If more than one cow in three requires a second course, action should be taken to investigate the reason why.

But before worrying that a specific product is not effective, it is important to check that it is being used properly. A good starting point for reviewing this is if each person, who treats clinical cases on the farm, can answer “yes” to the following:

• Is the quarter with clinical mastitis fully stripped before the antibiotic is infused?

• Does the person who gives the intramammary wear clean gloves?

• Is the teat end scrubbed with 70% alcohol before the tube is inserted?

• Has the full course of antibiotics been given according to the label?

It is easy to bring bacteria into the teat with the nozzle of the tube, so the teat end must be disinfected properly to avoid exacerbating problems in an already damaged quarter. Stripping out infected milk from clinical quarters improves cure rates. If the affected quarter is hard and sore, the let-down hormone (oxytocin) can be used to help remove milk.

The Countdown Downunder Farm Guidelines for Mastitis Control gives a step-by-step guide of the correct way to give intramammary treatments.

And to ensure that antibiotics remain effective and available to the industry, in years to come, it is important to:

• Only treat the quarters that are affected;

• Discard milk from ALL quarters of cows that receive treatment; and

• Observe withholding times for meat and milk.

For more information:

Countdown Downunder Farm Guideline or Technote
Farm Guideline 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.10, 4.11, Fact Sheet B

Keywords
Calving, clinical cases, antibiotics, cure rates

Word length
375