Mastitis Management

Dear Dr.,
No doubt mastitis is a very costly disease worldwide. But the data (value) of economic losses due to mastitis in India in this article are very old (1962). About Rs.1652Crores per anum have been reported by Dua, 2001. and even recent report has also been published by Bansal, 2007-08. So I think information should be updated.

Very informative article about Recent Trends in Mastitis Management. It covers all aspects of mastitis.

Dear Dr,

Excellant article about Recent Trends in Mastitis Management. But still more updated information could have been given in this article.
We would read more on sub-clinical and somatic cell counts in sub-clinical mastitis.

S. Murali
Product Manager

Dear Dr. Sharma,

The article by you is indeed very good on aspect of mastitis, a dreaded threat to dairy industry. To my knowledge if you could focus on your research at your establishment on role of yeast metabolites, aloe vera extracts and copper supplementation. Being a consultant in dairy sector, we use these products routinely as a feed supplements that take care of immune modulation, antioxidant properties and health status as well. No doubt farm and animal management plays a pivotal role in mastitis management, but in my opinion these feed supplements have more beneficial effects on mastitis control, udder health and ultimately on the production status of animal.

Dr. Sharma,

We are definitely seeing more mastitis from milk stasis in quarters that do not get milked out properly primarly due to poor automation service.
Mastitis is 100% man made, and dairymen have the choice to treat mastitis or prevent mastitis.

Do not jump to the gun! There are many differrent managemental tools such as the milk order (milk fresh cows first, 1st lactation then subsequent ones), hygenic bedding, then the major mastitis pathogen must be identified at least with gram-reactivity; if gram positive then confirm postmilking disinfection, milking machine back flushing and dry cow therapy; if gram-negative premilking disinfection, hygenic bedding and vaccination must be practiced.
What I want to confirm with all is: not the drugs not management not vaccination is the back bone of mastitis control (they all are so important), but the back bone is the immune status of the cow and the mammary gland itself. Understanding how immune system works at this level will be helpful to help cows and farmers.

I agree with Dr Sharma as we see more mastitis from milk stasis and poor automation. Bacteria does not swim and mastitis is 100% man made. We have seen tremendous success taking out the guess work with milking cows by selecting the right inflation, claw, milkhose and settings. Once the parlor is set up we can then look outside the parlor identifying where we are making mastitis with feed, water and low immune systems.

Dear Dr Sharma,
Thanks for highlighting one of the major causes of economic losses in dairy farming.
As said, good management is the key. It should include cleanliness in the farm, dry floor as far as possible, teat dip before and after milking, drying the teats before milking, cleaning of milking machine and its parts with proper detergents,milkmans health and hygiene, aflatoxins, less protien and energy,poor quality minerals, faulty milking. Somatic cell count can give rough idea about the status of the animal/herd. Bacteria are all over they will get the chance if the animal is under stress due to any reason. Some time treatment is very costly and moreover discarding milk in India is unimaginable.

Respected Dr Sharma,

Thanks for giving the necessary information on mastitis. What I feel is that mastitis is a problem basically originate and differ from farm to farm. Management of mastitis can be done by proper nutrition and use of antioxidents and specfic usage of herds which improves immune system along with healing power of diseased udder. The major farm practices using higher antibiotics, had proven non-effective. Essential nutrients feeding maintains udder healthy and prevents mastitis. The use of supportive therapy during problem also proves to be effective in preventing fibroses.

Dear Dr Mukesh,

I must congratulate you for the well-worded article about mastitis. In developing countries its impact can be imagined by the fact that in these countries 25% milking animals are affected from subclinincal to chronic mastitis in one way or the other. This shows the economic implication of this disease on the performance of this sector.

Besides loosing milk from the onset of this disease in the end the animal also loses its value in the market.

It is very very clear that the main responsibility of introduction of this disease in the herd lies on the owner or farm manager. If the owner/farm manager is determined not to allow this disease in his animals it is perfectly possible. Precautions given by you is the proof of this statement. However your article mainly addresses the big livestock farmers who can afford latest lab tests and milking machines besides other tools of modern dairy management.

It would have been better if you would have addressed the case of small scale farmers also who are are more than 80% in any developing country.Their herd size does not exceed from 5/6 animals and they cannot afford or even understand the use of all these things.

Such farmers can follow easy rules of keeping hygenic conditions inside and outside their holding sheds. Proper hand milking procedure can also help them. change of milking man also contributes in mastitis spread as every person has its own milking style and the new man may not know the temprament of the animal and it may result in milk stasis.

Milk stasis surely is one of the reason for mastitis but this habit of withdrawing milk for secondary letdown is seen only in 1% animals and this can be addressed if the owner is vigilant and if he rechecks the position of every udder and teats of his animals after 10 minutes completing all the milking of his animals.

Best tools of checking for small scale farmer is to use SURF TEST or California Mastitis Kit weekly besides observing continously rule of hygiene as mentioned in your articles also to keep this menance away from his animals. Once again congratulation for your beautiful and worthfollowing article about this economic disease.

Dear Dr Mukesh,
Good Morning. i will rate this article about mastitis in dairy cattle as very informative in a holistic way.


Dr Chandra Shekhar
Key Accounts Manager
Vetnex Animal Health Limited

Knowledgeable information on Mastitis. Being a Microbiologist, I am suggesting to control the involvement of bacteria in this problem on the basis of drug sensitivity report. That will give more effective and economical results as compare to blind treatment.

dr.yes i agree with you what i note in jordan that most of dairy farms medics herd about 10[percent] of the total herd with mastitis because of unskilled milker form egypt unable to develop them ,,it is 100[percent] human made.
regards
Dr.Moaied
danish jordan dairy,jordan,amman

Very good article. Mastistis is cause of nutritional, environmental, and managemental. All strategies should be followed to control mastitis.

Dear Dr. Sharma,
Excellent article indeed.Though causes of mastitis are many but primarily the small and marginal farmers must adopt proper cleanliness and milking practice to keep off mastitis.
Following the question of Dr. Arindam Chatterjee I too am interested to know your views regarding the use of Tri sodium citrate in prevention and supportive therapy in treatment.

Dr. Rabi Sankar Choudhury.

A very informative article about mastitis in dairy cattle .Will be of great use to me

hi ..
Actually i am visiting lots of farm in gujarat and i have seen that in every farm there is a major issue of Mastitis, and with that i have also seen that different people have diffrent practice or we can say treatment to cure it. But as per my openion we can give any injectable immunomodulator like Levamisol-75 injection then we can give amoxy+clavon. Acid and any NSAID like ketoprofen and orally vitamin suplimentation, this is very successful treatment for mustitis anybody can use it and check it that how much it is effective but from my side and my experience is concern i have seen to many people that they are getting very good result in treating mustitis. And if cost is not barier then we can use ceftiofur hydro. intramemmory treatment that one is also needfull.