A2O-Ltnc*ster Fanning, Saturday, January 2, 1993
UNIVERSITY PARK (Centre
Co.) An expert system being
developed at Penn State may help
dairy farmers reduce costs and
increase profits by helping them
diagnose and control mastitis, the
costliest disease of dairy cattle.
By reducing milk production
ruining udder tissue and even kill
ing dairy cows, mastitis costs an
estimated $2 billion in North
America each year.
“Mastitis causes estimated los
ses of $2OO per cow every year,”
said Dr. William Heald, professor
of animal science in Penn State’s
College of Agricultural Sciences.
“It cuts farm income and lowers
milk quality, cheese yield and
shelf life.
Cut und dried.
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' t ' y \
Computer To Trouble Shoot Mastitis Problems
“By minimizing mastitis, dairy
farmers can increase milk produc
tion and reduce veterinarian and
drug expenses, leading to
increased farm income levels.”
Heald began developing the
Bovine Mastitis Diagnostic
Expert System in 1991. A final
version, intended for use on IBM
personal computers, may be avail
able as early as fall 1993. The
expert system analyzes DHIA data
and responds to descriptions of
symptoms. Using this informa
tion, the system analyzes the prob
lem and suggests a potential
solution.
The system has three main
components. An information
module contains data on mastitis
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pathogens, infection methods,
somatic cell counts, economic los
ses, mastitis control procedures
and more. “The system uses this
information to analyze on-farm
problems,” said Heald, “but it also
will display this basic information
for farmers who wish to learn
more about mastitis in general.”
The other two modules allow
producers to analyze mastitis data
by either the entire herd or the
individual cow. “By asking the
farmer questions and using DHIA
data, the system tries to determine
which pathogen is most likely to
be responsible for the problem and
then makes recommendations,”
Heald said.
The system contains informa-
tion on causes and controls for the
two main types of mastitis, clini
cal and subclinical. “Clinical mas
titis symptoms, including lumpy
or watery milk, fever, depression
and lack of appetite, can be
detected easily,” said Heald. “But
only 5 to 10 percent of mastitis
cases are clinical.”
Subclinical mastitis, which has
no apparent symptoms, is the most
common from of the disease,
affecting between 30 and SO per
cent of dairy cows. “Subclinical
mastitis causes the greatest overall
milk loss because it's so hard to
detect,” Heald said.
“In an average herd, 30 to 40
percent of all cows may have sub
clinical mastitis. But without visi-
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ble symptoms, a cow’s milk must
be tested to determine whether a
subclinical infection exists.”
With DHIA data about a cow’s
somatic cell count, farmers can
use the expert system to analyze
the possibility that a cow has sub
clinical mastitis. “If more subclin
ical cases could be detected early
on, dairy producers could stop los
ing money to decreased milk pro
duction,” Heald said.
ly
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