Livestock Notes |
Mastitis During Lactation -
Why Treat?
Ohio Slate researchers have
shown that the average cost of
treating a clinical case of mastitis
is $llO. What docs a farmer get in
return for the $110?
The answer depends on several
factors; type of organism, drugs
used, route of administration, age
of cow, previous limes treated,
etc. Many dairymen treat clinical
case of mastitis without consider
ing any of the above factors. Let
us consider some of the factors
necessary to make a yes/no treat
ment decision.
Factor - Organism Causing
The Mastitis Problem:
• Ninety percent (90 percent) of
Streptococcus agalactiac infec
tions can be cured with penicillin
therapy of the udder during lacta
tion. However, treating an indivi
dual cow for Strep, ag. in a Strep,
ag. infected herd is a meaningless
exercise as the treated cow will
become reinfected unless all
infected cows are treated, dry
treated or sold.
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Only ten to twenty percent of
Staphylococcus aureus can be
cured with intramammary treat
ment Some drugs may cure zero.
A cure rate of 10-20 percent is no
higher than using no treatment
(spontaneous cure; cow cures self
via leucocytes). Recent research
on combination therapy; that is,
intramammary plus intravenous or
intramuscular therapy, showed an
increase in cure rate to maybe 30
percent for Staph, aureua. The
combination therapy will increase
the cost of treatment Therefore,
cost of treating 10 infected cows is
a $l,OOO or more with only 1-3
cows being cured; certainly, not
cost effective.
• Infections caused by environ
mental streptococci or conforms
are of a short duration. They usu
ally cause an acute case of mastitis
or are cleared from the udder with
out clinical signs. Some strep
infections may persist through the
lactation without clinical prob
lems but can be cured with dry
treatment Environmental streps
have a 50 percent or less cure reate
You Don’t Have To Pay
Unless It Works.
with lactation therapy. Acute
cases signify a threat to the cow
but the infection in the udder is
past the therapy stage. The cow
needs general supportive therapy
such as fluids, aspirin and others
but not antibiotics. In addition,
milk or other secretions need to be
removed from the udder on a fre
quent basis; for example, every 2
hours.
• Infections resulting from
yeast, fungi, pseudomonas spe
cies, mycoplasms, serratia and
others are not treatable.
Conclusion from these 4 facts is
very simple; Strep, ag. is the only
organism that is treatable with
intramammary administration of
drugs during lactation. It is a
waste of money, time and labor to
treat Staph, aureus clinical cases
during lactation. The only excep
tion to the previous statement
might be a recently fresh two year
old where the somatic cell count
has just increased. There is a pos
sibility that Staph, aureus has not
deeply invaded mammary tissue
and may respond to therapy with
the cure rate exceeding 30 percent.
Staph, aureus infections must be
prevented through teat dipping
(postmilking), dry cow therapy,
segregation of infected cows at
milking, early detection of
infected cows including fresh two
Lancaster Farming, Saturday, January 9,1993-F35
year olds and culling of chronical
ly infected cows. A quarter
infected with Staph, aureus that
has not responded to lactation or
dry period therapy will never
respond to any therapy. Older
cows with high SCC in 2 or more
quarters and a staph problem for 2
lactations are not treatable.
What are the options? Let’s
define some clinical mastitis
examples and recommendations.
Example 1:
Cow 101 is shedding some
flakes or garget from the right rear
quarter, milk is white, no swelling
of quarter, cow’s temperature is
normal and herd has no history of
any Strep, ag. but staph is a con
cern. My suggestion is to milk out
the quarter as completely as possi
ble or milk the quarlcr/cow sever
al times during the day. Oxytocin
used at the end of each milking
may assist in the evacuation of
more milk. The milking unit
should be sanitized after milking
cow 101, so infection is not spread
to the next cow. Treatment is of no
value to solving cow 101 ’s prob
lem nor in solving a herd problem.
If several clinical mastitis cases
have occurred recently or the clin
ical rate has changed with season
you should ask yourself why is
this happening. Your efforts
should be aimed at a prevention
program and not in trying to find a
different drug to treat again. The
question concerning cow 101 will
be what was her net income to you
during the past year Treating a
cow for mastitis more than twice
during a lactation is futile.
Example 2:
Cow 102 shows flakes and
garget from the left rear quarter
with some swelling but no rise in
body temperature. Action plan is
the same as Example 1; milk fre
quently + oxytocin, isolate during
milking but don’t treat. If swelling
increases and body temperature
rises, you may want to consider
therapy based on veterinarian’s
suggestion.
Example 3:
Cow 103 has clinical mastitis
that emerged in 8 hours. The right
rear quarter is hard and swollen
and cow 103 also has a 105°F
temperature. It is obvious that cow
103 is in danger. However, by this
time most or all of bacteria in the
udder have been destroyed. The
goal is to stabilize 103 by prevent
ing dehydration and reducing
mammary swelling. Administra
tion of fluids (5-10 gallons over 24
(Turn to Pago F 36)
STRIKE
IT
RICH!
SOI
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WITH
A
LANCASTER
FARMING
CLASSIFIED
UNI-HYDRO
IRONWORKER
35 to 120 .
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Selling; Scotchman
Uni-Hydra Mubea
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BENDER
DAVID S. KIND
873 S. Railroad St.
Myerstown, PA 17067
Answering Sarvlca •