• There's much more to managing clinical mastitis than just treating individual cows
• Keeping tabs on the 'big picture' of what is happening in the herd is the key to mastitis control
• Before calving starts, decide what triggers will alert you to early signs of emerging mastitis problems in your herd
• Regularly review these triggers
• Check that the on-farm team has a consistent approach to identifying and recording information about clinical cases of mastitis
• Seek veterinary advice when a mastitis problem is identified

Discovering several cases of clinical mastitis in the first few weeks of calving puts additional, unwanted stress on farm staff. Rather than channelling resources into treating individual clinical cases, why not put effort into an action plan that covers the whole herd?

A simple approach is to develop a system so that your farm workers can quickly recognise mastitis problems and what do about them.

The farmers at the courses have used several measures to provide early warning of clinical mastitis problems. The triggers chosen have included:

• If more than 3 clinical cases occur within the first 50 calvings (it is worthwhile investigating this rate of clinical mastitis)
• If more than one case in three needs a second course of antibiotic treatment (this suggests the treatment has not been as successful as it could be)
• If some of the heifers develop clinical mastitis (these must be new infections and show that the problem is on-going)
• If Strep agalactiae is grown from milk cultures (this bacteria spreads rapidly from cow to cow and can cause a lot of clinical cases)
• If there is an unexpected increase in the Bulk Milk Cell Count in the vat (in herds that are usually in premium, an unexpected rise in BMCC is often due to a 'missed' clinical sign)
• If there are clots on the milk filter
  

Actions taken when a trigger 'goes off' vary from herd to herd, although most are directed at confirming and containing problems. For example, if the clinical case rate approaches the trigger figure (say, 3 cases per 50 calvings), milk samples, already collected from affected cows and stored in the freezer, may be sent to a laboratory for testing. Or if a lot of cows require a second course of treatment, veterinary advice may be sought to pinpoint appropriate changes in the treatment approach.

It is worthwhile developing a tailored plan for your herd - especially if it has been a challenge to deal with clinical cases at calving in the past. Having a plan of action helps you manage the problem technically and removes much of the uncertainty and worry - you've already decided what to do.

A team approach is necessary to deal with clinical mastitis at calving with minimal stress and maximum result.

There are three essential elements to having a successful on-farm team.

The first is for everyone to be consistent in how they deal with problems on the farm.

For example, does everyone know which cows to treat for mastitis? Do they detect clinical cases the same way - by looking at the udder for swelling, by checking for heat or pain, or by foremilk stripping all fresh cows for the first 8 milkings? Does everyone know what level of detail to keep on the clinical cases?

Milking Management recommends ways of achieving a consistent and reliable approach to recognising and managing clinical cases.

The second element is to ensure all staff share the same 'big picture' about why mastitis has developed in the herd. Otherwise, farm resources will be channelled into treating individual cows instead of pinpointing and correcting the cause of the problem.

Seeing the big picture means being able to detect when mastitis cases in the herd are starting to creep up - and knowing what action to take at different stages of the outbreak. It also means you know what tasks to undertake to provide the information you need to solve mastitis problems at calving, for example, how to collect good quality milk samples and record detailed information about which cows were clinical.

Last but not least, the on-farm team needs to have good communication, so that key tasks are not duplicated or omitted.

Can everyone (including casual milkers) recognise which cows to treat? Is there a system in place to know when their treatment starts and finishes? Is someone responsible for writing the required level of detail about the clinical cases in a book? Who pulls it together and checks that everything is on track? How regularly do they pass this information back to the rest of the on-farm team?

Having consistent records, triggers that are recognised by everyone, and good communication among team members will provide an early warning for emerging clinical case problems at calving. Early problem recognition and action means less stress and healthier cows.

Cows are very vulnerable to mastitis, a bacterial infection of the udder, in the first month after calving. Subclinical infections that have persisted through the dry period can flare into clinical cases, or cows can pick up new infections at calving or at milking.

The strategy for controlling mastitis depends on what bacteria is causing the problem in the fresh herd. There is only one way to establish this: collect milk samples from a number of affected cows and send them to a laboratory.

It is not possible to tell whether the first few cases at the start of calving are the only cows that are going to be affected, or whether the herd is on the verge of a sizeable clinical case problem.

So it is a good insurance policy to collect milk samples from all mastitis cases. These samples can be stored in the freezer and sent to a laboratory if a problem emerges in the next 3-4 weeks.

It is worthwhile talking with a vet about what the laboratory results mean and what to do next, especially if the herd has three clinical cases in less than 50 calvings.

It is also important to train the on-farm team about the importance of collecting good samples . This gives the advising vet confidence in the results from the milk cultures, as well as reducing problems associated with "no growth" and "contamination".

Samples are called "contaminated" when they yield a lot of different bacteria. The extra bacteria are usually introduced at sampling and may come from a fleck of (wet or dry) cow shit, from the outside surface of the teat skin, or even from the skin of the person collecting the sample!

"No growth" means that no bacteria grew at all. This can happen if the milk sample was collected after the cow was treated with antibiotic, or if the bacteria died during storage, handling or transport to the laboratory.

These results are frustrating because they take the same amount of time and money as other milk cultures but provide no information.

"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 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.

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; (?infected)
• Discard milk from ALL quarters of cows that receive treatment; and
• Observe withholding times for meat and milk.
  
  
  Important "The teat end must be disinfected properly to avoid introducing bacteria into the teat during treatment."

Disclaimer: Milking Management seeks to ensure that the information contained within this document is accurate. However, the Milking Management shall not in any
event be liable for loss, damage or injury howsoever suffered directly or indirectly in relation to the information contained within this
document, and no liability will be accepted for errors or omissions.