A34—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, February 21,1981
Dairy specialist shares tips on mastitis
LANCASTER - The fact
mastitis cuts milk production in
dairy cattle is not a new finding
but one dairy producers need to
take a hard look at, according to
Steven Spencer, Penn State Dairy
Specialist.
He shared management tips to
help control this bacterial infection
with Lancaster County dairy
farmers last Friday at the Farm
and Home Center
“Although most farmers refer to
the bacteria that causes mastitis
as a bug, it is actually a plant that
enters the teat, becomes em
bedded in the udder, and begins to
grow,” he explained
As the infection takes hold, white
blood cells appear on the scene and
begin to attack the bacteria,
Spencer said. This produces the
elevated white blood cell count in
the milk which in the normal cow
udder ranges between 30,000 to
300,000 per milliliter and in severe
infections can go over a million.
What sets the stage for mastitis
infections’ One condition is im
proper milking, according to
Spencer
“You can never milk a cow dry,”
he said “There is always about 5-
20 percent held m the udder as
residual milk. This residual milk,
however, presents no problem
“Where the problems start is
with the milk mat could be
stripped out, called available milk.
When this milk is left in the udder,
chances of mastitis increase ’ ’
When drying off cows, Spencer
stressed proper procedures need to
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be followed to reduce the risk of
infection.
“Don’t milk the cow every other
day as some farmers do if you’re
drying her off, stop milking her
completely. Reduce her feed in
take to lower milk production to 30
or 35 pounds per day, put her in a
stall by herself which will make
her unhappy, and feed her poor
hay,” he said
“After you’ve milked her for the
last time, prepare her teats for a
mastitis single-service dry
treatment infusion, teat dip her
and turn her out Don’t continue to
teat dip after she’s been treated
this may stimulate milk produc
tion ”
Spencer noted there are 88
known organisms that can cause
mastitis, however only about a half
dozen are recognized as the major
problem causers.
He stressed the contagious
aspect of mastitis, pointing out
how infection can actually be
passed from cow to cow by hand or
with equipment.
Nmety percent of all contagious
mastitis infections, he said, can be
attributed to two bacteria,
streptococcus agalactiae and
staphylococcus aureus
Environmental forms that are
picked up by the cow are caused by
cobforms, such as E cob and
klebsiella
“Klebsiella mastitis is also
known as sawdust mastitis,”
Spencer said “There is a false
rumor going around that kiln dried
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versus sawdust
“All I can say is if I were having
a cow freshen, it would be on straw
not sawdust ”
One other environmental
mastitis agent, Spencer noted, is
known as ‘strep non ag’, which
stands for streptococci-no
agalactiae.
Two tests for detecting mastitis
include the California test, where a
pink detergent is absorbed by
white blood cells in milk until they
explode and gel, and the Wisconsin
test
"If you get a Wisconsin test
measuring 5 to 7 millimeters, you
have a good test less than 700,000
count A 12-17 mm test means you
have a problem with over 800,000
white blood cell count. And, a test
of over 21 mm needs to be con-
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firmed with a laboratory’s direct
microscope somatic cell count,”
said Spencer
“I’ve heard a lot of excuses for
elevated tell counts they’re all
cop outs,” Spencer chided. “Foot
rot won’t raise cell counts to
1,500,000
“The somatic cell count only
goes up appreciably with infected
cows, regardless of age or lac
tation stage. Producers who blame
the high count on a greater number
of cows nearing the tail-end of
lactation or a greater number of
older cows in the milking string
are all wet.”
Spencer noted any producer with
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a count of 1,500,000 is in a disaster
area economically.
In studies done at Penn State,
Spencer reported a count of 0-
250,000 corresponded with a
production rate of 48.3 pounds of
milk per cow. As the count in
creased, production was reduced
251,000-500,000 cell count
lowered production to 43.1 pounds
per cow, and a count over 2,000,000
dropped production to 39.6 pounds
per cow
Although the interstate milk
shipping regulations limit the cell
count to 1,500,000 and under,
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